Women Take First, Men Finish Second at HL Championships
With 172 points, YSU's women's track and field team won the Horizon League Championships this weekend. YSU's men's team scored 108 points for a solid second-place finish. Individual event winners included Alison Roth, Ciara Jarrett, Bobby Grace, and Katrina Rettburg.
Women's results
Roth and Jarrett won multiple events during Sunday's finals.
Roth placed first in both the discus and the shot put, setting a new school record in the discus. She hit a mark of 47.58m, which crushed the previous record of 47.04m set by Mary Domitrovich in May 2000. In the shot put, Roth threw a personal-best 14.16m for the third-farthest throw in school history.
Jarrett ran away with titles in the 100m and 200m after posting the top preliminary times for both events. In the 100m, she finished in a time of 11.83 seconds, and in the 200m, she ran a season-best 24.19 seconds to take the top spot.
Rettburg won the high jump after also defeating Laura Hamel from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a jump of at 1.65m. Rettburg took first place with a final height of 1.68m.
Also in the discus event, YSU swept the top three places. KaiCee Kubicina placed second with a mark of 43.01m while Kaitlyn Griffith finished third with a throw of 40.75m. Megan Wesner took sixth, throwing 38.18m. In the shot put competition, Griffith finished second with a throw of 13.68m, and Kubicina took sixth with a mark of 12.47m.
Alexis Washington finished right behind Jarrett in the 200m, taking second with a personal-best time of 24.88 seconds. She also finished fourth in the 100m with a time of 12.19 seconds.
In the 400m, Alteeka Vanwright and Sharmaine Burke finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Vanwright completed the race in a time of 58.12 seconds while Burke was right behind in a time of 59.51 seconds.
Laura Kosiorek placed fifth in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.23 seconds, and Kendall Homan finished fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 11.50m.
Makayla Martin took third in the high jump with a height of 1.63m while Leanna Hartsough placed fifth with a mark of 1.58m.
The 4x100m team of Kosiorek, Jarrett, Homan, and Washington finished second in a time of 47.45 seconds.
The women's team won with 172 points. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee took second with 129 points, and Loyola finished third with 94 points.
After the meet, Coach Gorby stated, "What really separates this championship from the other 18 team championships is that YSU was the top sprints squad, top distance squad, top throws squad and top jumps squad at the championships. This was the most complete team performance in YSU championship history."
Coach Gorby also said, "In past championships, we've won with sprints and throws or throws, jumps, and distance, but this was a complete team performance to dominate by 40-50 points in every area. It was incredible to have so many athletes step up to score big for the 19th championship in YSU track and field history."
Men's results
In addition to his victory in the hammer throw on Saturday, Grace won the discus and shot put events Sunday. He threw the discus for a winning mark of 50.29m and set a new meet record in the shot put with a mark of 18.30m.
Also in the shot put, Benjamin Goodnight placed second, throwing a personal-best 15.33m. In the discus, Caleb Schwan and George Thomas both threw personal-bests to finish fourth and fifth, respectively. Schwan threw for 47.31m, and Thomas hit a mark of 46.98m.
In the sprints, Michael Davis finished second in the 200m with a time of 21.83 seconds and took third in the 100m with a time of 10.66 seconds. Tarelle Irwin came in just hundredths of a second behind Davis in the 200m, finishing in a time of 21.83 seconds as well. Irwin also placed sixth in the 100m with a time of 10.90 seconds. Derek Dowdell placed seventh in the 100m with a time of 10.94 seconds.
Martin Solomon took third in the 400m hurdles with a time of 53.55 seconds and placed sixth in the 110m hurdles, completing the race in a time of 14.70 seconds.
Eric Rupe took seventh in the steeplechase, finishing in a time of 9:46.43; he also finished eighth in the 1500m run with a time of 3:59.35.
In the high jump, Aaron Hartsough placed third, jumping 1.91m, and Davion Cuff had a triple jump mark of 13.12m, which was good for seventh place.
The 4x100 team of Irwin, Davis, Dowdell, and Solomon won the event in 41.40 seconds.
Coach Gorby said, "These men really stepped up big to lock up the runner-up trophy."
The men finished with 108 points. UWM won the meet with 175 points while Loyola took third with 81 points.
