Five athletes from the Youngstown State University track and field teams won their events at the YSU Invitational on Friday at the Watson and Tressel Training Site.
It was the second event YSU hosted at the WATTS. The other was the YSU Invitational on Dec. 2.
Head coach Brian Gorby said it was a great event for the Penguins.
“Overall, it was really neat to see the teams like Kent State,” Gorby said. “I never thought in a million years that Kent would be down here. They actually canceled their meet because everyone was coming our way.”
In the men’s field events, sophomore Dorian Davis and freshman Dan Skiba were the top two finishers in the long jump, both leaping into the school record books.
Dorian Davis’ jump of 7.01 meters was the second highest in school history, and Skiba jumped 6.83 meters, good for fourth place in school history.
Junior Michael Davis outran the competition in the 60-meter dash, finishing in 6.98 seconds. He also placed second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.30 seconds.
Junior Tarelle Irwin also ran the 200-meter dash and placed sixth with 22.53 seconds.
In the mile race, sophomore Eric Rupe finished second for the Penguins, running a time of 4 minutes, 17.82 seconds. He was joined by freshman Austin McLean, who finished fourth, running 4:24.16, which was his personal best.
Gorby said getting the wins was a good start for the team.
“I mean, you have people like Anna Pompeo winning the 5,000-meter and Mike Davis winning the 60-meter dash,” Gorby said. “It was fantastic for us in the meet and lots of wins, lots of personal bests.”
On the women’s side, three athletes finished first in their events.
Sophomore Anna Pompeo won the 5,000-meter run with a personal best of 18:08.66, which is eighth best in school history. Freshman Katie Heney finished fifth in the same event, also running her personal best at a time of 18:45.42.
In the 60-meter hurdles, senior Laura Kosiorek and junior Nicole Rymer took the top two spots. Kosiorek finished first, running 8.85 seconds, with Rymer right behind with a time of 8.95 seconds.
In the high jump, sophomore Katrina Rettburg won the event with a jump of 1.68 meters. Freshman Leanna Hartsough’s personal best of 1.64 meters was good for third in the event.
The women’s team also won the 4-x-400 meter relay race. The team of junior Nicole Pachol and sophomores Ciara Jarrett, Alexis Washington and Alteeka Vanwright ran a time of 4:01.27.
Junior Samantha Hamilton finished second in the mile run, running two seconds short of her personal best with a time of 4:58.01.
Gorby said the growth from the first home meet to the past one was most impressive for him.
The Penguins will be back at the WATTS on Friday and Saturday for the YSU National Invitational.
“We have a more elite group of teams coming in this week, and we are going to focus on more of our individual events,” Gorby said. “This past week, we kind of worked on our off events. Now, we will work on more of our main events and look to start climbing to standings and school records.”
