By Marissa Masano / The Jambar
Some Penguins battled the rain and faced high temperatures, as the Youngstown State University track and field teams split up to continue its spring season.
Part of the team traveled to the University of Tennessee Invite, while others competed at the Slippery Rock University Dave Labor Invitational on April 4-5.
In Knoxville, Tennessee, the Penguins claimed victories in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, women’s triple jump and men’s steeplechase and also set three school records.
Graduate student Emily Bee won the women’s 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.60 seconds, breaking the previous school record of 13.63 seconds set by former Penguin Amber Eles in 2018.
Fifth-year senior Esther Solarin earned first place in the women’s triple jump with a career-best leap of 13.42 meters, surpassing her previous best of 13.09 meters. Her mark now ranks fourth in the NCAA.
Fellow fifth-year senior Nia Williams-Matthews secured second place in the event with a career-best jump of 12.96 meters.
Solarin also broke the school record in the women’s long jump, placing second with a leap of 6.16 meters — surpassing her previous best of 6.10 meters.
In the men’s steeplechase, the Penguins swept the podium. Junior Sage Vavro took first with a time of 9:08.65, which ranks seventh in school history. Junior Connor Shingleton and senior Keegan Barnette followed, finishing second and third with times of 9:25.17 and 9:38.21, respectively.
Senior Luke Laubacher placed third in the men’s long jump with a personal-best leap of 7.58 meters, moving him into second place in YSU history for the event.
Sophomore Micah Mitchell finished second in the men’s 110-meter hurdles and moved into third in program history with a time of 13.84 seconds.
The men’s 4×100-meter relay team — comprised of Laubacher, fifth-year senior Tye Hunt, junior Jake McEntyre and senior Daimere Stephens-Stewart — finished fourth with a time of 40.87 seconds.
Meanwhile, rainy conditions set the stage at Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, where senior Nathan Leskovac and junior Ainsley Hamsher won their respective events.
Leskovac claimed first in the men’s high jump with a clearance of 2.05 meters, followed closely by senior Mason Stephens, who finished second with a jump of two meters.
Hamsher led the Penguins to a podium sweep in the women’s pole vault, winning the event with a clearance of four meters.
Junior Melana Schumaker placed second with a mark of 3.90 meters, while sophomore Kaitlyn Eger and junior Gabbi Selman both cleared 3.70 meters to tie for third.
With the conclusion of the meets, four athletes earned the Under Armour Horizon League Track and Field Outdoor Athletes of the Week awards. Laubacher and Solarin were named the men’s and women’s field athletes of the week, while Vavro and Bee earned men’s and women’s runners of the week, respectively.
Up next, the Penguins will send athletes to the Bucknell University Bison Outdoor Classic and the Westminster College Invitational on April 12-13.
