By Keon Edington / The Jambar
During the Raleigh Relays, March 26-28, the Youngstown State University track and field team saw two Penguins break long-standing records and set personal bests inside the Paul Derr Track and Field Complex in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Junior Sage Vavro broke a 17-year-long program record as he finished the steeplechase with a time of 8:47.06 and set a personal best. Junior McKinley Fielding competed in the 10K and earned a personal-best time of 34:02.56 — nearly 30 seconds faster than her 10K performance at the Raleigh Relays in 2025.
Continuing the trend of personal bests, sophomore Kaitlyn Eger won the women’s pole vault with a first-place measure of 4.02 meters, which beat her previous height of 3.85 meters set at the relay in 2024.
Seniors Melana Schumaker and Gabbi Selman placed in 10th and 13th, respectively, with heights of 3.57 meters each. Freshman Marissa Ratliff rounded out the Penguins’ pole vault placements with a 16th-place measure of 3.42 meters.
In the 100-meter hurdles, junior Lea Parham moved to ninth in program history with a time of 14.27 seconds.
For the 5000-meter run, two Penguins set personal bests as sophomore Caleigh Richards moved into fourth place in program history with her time of 16:50.79 and senior Jenna Razavi posted a time of 17:08.15.
Freshman Tori Atkins debuted in the 400-meter dash and finished with a time of 55.61 seconds, which moved her into fourth in program history. Junior Melody Harloff also set her personal-best time with 55.93 seconds, which moved her into ninth place in program history.
To round out the placements on the women’s side, Youngstown State finished ninth in the 4×100 relay and 20th in the 4×400 relay.
Moving to the men’s side, the triple jump saw sophomore Brayden Green and junior Emmanuel Asabre leaping their way to new personal-best times. Green vaulted to a 14.78-meter jump, which put him third in program history while Asabre’s jump of 14.64 meters put him in sixth.
Sophomore Jaden Kirkwood placed seventh in the shot put with his toss of 17.07 meters, which moved into eighth overall in program history.
In the running events, junior Connor Shingleton finished the men’s 1500-meter run with a time of 3:49.09,which put him in fifth in program history.
Junior Micah Mitchell competed in the 110-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles to finish with a time of 14.27 and 53.07 seconds, respectively.
To end the competition, the men competed in the 4×100 meter relay, finishing ninth overall.
The track and field team returns to action April 3-4 for the Dave Labor Invitational at Slippery Rock University.