Over the course of the two-day YSU Mid-Major Invitational held at the Watson Tressel Training Site (WATTS) Jan. 29-30, the Youngstown State track and field programs accumulated 11 event wins and 61 top-five finishes (39 on Saturday) en route to a dominating weekend performance.
Among the many notable performances from Saturday's action, junior Sean Peterson, in the second-to-last event of the meet, set a new YSU Mid-Major Invitational record in the men's 800m run, posting a time of 1:50.95. The previous record (1:52.60) was set in 2015 and held by Virginia Military Institute's Avery Martin.
According to the Track & Field Results Reporting System (TFRRS), Sean's 800m time is the 18th-fastest clocked in the country, thus far this season.
Running Highlights
Picking up where she left off during Friday's preliminary races, sophomore Jahniya Bowers clocked 7.54 in the women's 60m dash final, winning the first event of the day for the Penguins. Not far behind, junior Suerethia Henderson (7.76), sophomore Kyndia Matlock (7.81) and freshman Cyncere Cunningham (7.99) took the next three-fastest times in the event.
YSU wasted no time clinching another event victory, as freshman Madison Murry posted the top time in the 60m hurdle final (8.83), winning her first event of the 2021 indoor season.
The male sprinters followed suit, sweeping the top-three times in the men's 60m dash. Junior Jamynk Jackson took home the gold for the Guins, finishing the heat with a time of 7.11. Sophomore Christian Ford (7.12) placed second and sophomore Zaire Fabian (7.15) finished third.
In his Penguin debut, freshman Ja-Von Poole notched a strong performance, placing second in the men's 60m hurdles and tallying another top-five finish for YSU.
Adding distance to the blocks seemed to have little effect on the YSU speed as the Guins clocked the five-fastest times in the women's 200m dash final. Bowers, for the second time of morning, came out on top, posting a 24.83. Henderson (25.12), Matlock (25.76), Murry (25.82) and freshman Logan Franczkowski (25.96) came shortly thereafter.
Junior Lauren Dolak, for the second-consecutive meet, won the women's 800m run. This time out, Dolak set a new personal-best for the 2021 indoor season (2:18.42), beating her previous time by two seconds (2:20.55).
The Penguins continued to perform in the distance events during the afternoon slate, exemplified in the men's mile run with sophomore Chase Easterling earning a second place finish (4:17.04) and junior Ethan Sparks placing third (4:18.66) in the event.
Field Highlights
Freshman Riley Wright showed-out during Saturday's scheduled events of the two-day men's Heptathlon, winning event No. 6 (pole vault) and notching two second-place finishes in the 60m hurdles and 1000m run to solidify a second-place finish overall. Wright finished with 4593 points.
In the finals of the men's high jump, junior Terron Taylor clinched the event victory for the Penguins with jump of 2.04m. Sophomore Grant Moore finished cleared 1.96m, earning him a third place finish.
In the triple jump, both men's and women's programs took the top-two spots, respectively. On the women's side, freshman Nia Williams-Matthews posted an 11.41m jump to take the event. Fellow-freshman Stephanie Simon placed second with a jump of 11.14m. Sophomore Jakari Lomax earned the event win for the men, jumping 14.42m and edging out teammate junior Daiquain Watson (13.78).
Freshman Brock Grundy notched his second top-five performance of the 2021 indoor season in the shot put, finishing second with a throw of 15.52m.
Other Notable Day Two Performances
The Penguins will be back in action Feb. 13 when they travel to Kent State University to compete in the Doug Raymond Invitational.
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