By Marc Weems
For the second consecutive year, the Youngstown State University men’s and women’s track and field teams won the Horizon League championships.
This was the second-straight year that both team won the HL Championship.
On the men’s side, YSU won with a score of 201. The next closest was the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at 162.50 points.
On the women’s side, YSU cruised to victory with a score of 203.83 while the second-place team, Oakland University, scored 121 points.
For the women, Jaynee Corbett, Amber Eles, Jaliyah Elliott, Keishawnna Burts and Abby Jones all won their specialty events to give the Penguins a huge boost in the team standings.
The Penguins started the day with a nail-biting win by Jones in the high jump. Jones and University of Illinois-Chicago’s Janeka Stokes had to go to a jump-off to determine the winner where Jones won with a 1.68m.
Corbett added to the Penguins’ win total with a meet-record throw in the shot put while claiming her third consecutive title in the event. On her final attempt, she threw a mark of 15.81m. Behind Corbett were freshman Kaitlyn Merwin in second (13.64m) and Nicolette Kreatsoulas in third (12.85m).
Eles lowered her school mark in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.40 seconds to win the event. It was the second straight year in which she won the event.
Elliott raced to a meet-final-record in the 60m dash. Elliott, who set the school record in the event on Saturday with a time of 7.36 seconds, posted a time of 7.40 seconds on Sunday. It was the first Horizon League title for Elliott who was second in the event last year.
In the 200m, it was Burts’ turn to take the top of the podium for the first time in her career. Burts won the 200m dash with a time of 24.10 seconds. The time broke the school mark that Burts had set on Saturday and eclipsed the previous Horizon League Championship top performance.
In the 800m, Nicole Squatrito tied for third with a time of 2:17.24.
YSU capped off the day with a win in the 4x400m relay. The Penguins posted a time of 3:49.17 as Iva Domitrovich and Teneisha Myers along with Elliott and Burts added another trophy to their impressive haul.
On the men’s side, Chad Zallow won three events and the Youngstown State men’s track and field team picked up wins from Collin Harden and Sean Peterson as the Penguins were able to win their third consecutive championship.
For the third straight year, Chad Zallow won the 60m dash and the 60m hurdles and he took first in the 200m dash for the second straight year. He is the first runner in Horizon League history to win three 60m dash crowns.
Chad Zallow’s first win of the afternoon came in the 60m hurdles. Chad Zallow blazed a time of 7.73 seconds to win the event by 0.36 seconds. Placing third was Caleb Lloyd (8.19) and Myron Anderson was sixth (8.42).
Harden became the first Penguin to win the men’s 400m dash with an impressive effort. Harden ran a time of 47.64 — just 0.02 seconds off the school mark — to be victorious by 0.56 over Oakland’s Jimmie Williams.
Chad Zallow earned the title in the 60m dash with a time of 6.80 seconds as the Penguins had five of the top eight runners. He became the first Penguin since Kurt Michaelis in 2002 to win the event.
Peterson ran a time of 1:55.05 to hold off Milwaukee’s Drew Dueck. C.J. Schumacher was fourth with a time of 1:55.80.
In the 200m dash, Chad Zallow capped off a three-win day with a time of 21.55 seconds. The performance was a season-best for Chad Zallow. Placing third was Carl Zallow with a time of 21.89 seconds while Brendon Lucas came in fourth with a time of 21.98 seconds.
Ryan Booth placed second in the shot put with a season-best throw of 17.12m.