RALEIGH, North Carolina – For a second-consecutive day, a Youngstown State athlete set a new school record and the Youngstown State men's and women's track and field programs continued to show out at the North Carolina State Raleigh Relays.
Posting a 15.18-meter jump, sophomore Jakari Lomax set a new YSU program record in the men's triple jump and would go onto finish sixth-overall in Friday's event. The previous record (14.69m) was held by former-Penguin Dorian Davis and was set in 2011. Lomax is fresh-off a Horizon League indoor title in the event.
Behind Lomax, Daiquain Watson also earned a top-10 finish in the men's triple jump following a 14.35-meter jump to earn himself ninth-place.
Freshman Morgan Cole, in the last event of the day for YSU, won the first section of the women's 5000-meter run while slashing her previous personal-best by more than 19 seconds as she posted a 17:11.98 in the race. Impressively, the race included not one, but two Guins who crossed the finish line under the 18-minute mark with senior Ashleigh Rowley posting a 17:59.34.
The Penguins would tally six top-10 finishes throughout the day.
Terron Taylor opened Friday's action by clearing 2.00m on his second attempt in the men's high jump en route to a seventh-place finish in the event. Fellow teammates Grant Moore (1.95m) and Lonnie Harper (1.95m) finished ninth and eleventh, respectively, out of 16 individual event entries.
Following a third-place finish in her section, freshman Emily Wolf notched the 15th-best mark in the women's discus throw with a personal-best mark of 40.98m. Not far behind, Sammy Dyson logged a twentieth-place finish with a throw of 39.57m. There were 28 total entries in the event.
Nia Williams-Matthews tallied the Penguins' third top-10 finish of Friday's action from Raleigh, posting a 11.46-meter mark in the women's triple jump and surging her way to a ninth-place effort in the event.
In her outdoor debut, first-year Penguin Emily Bee cleared 1.60m in the women's high jump to secure an outdoor personal best and the twelfth-best jump of the day.
YSU tabbed two throwers in the top-14 in the men's discus throw, with sophomore Zach Gehm leading the charge with a ninth-place finish after posting a 52.06-meter mark. Brock Grundy, who finished fourteenth out of 30 competitors, recorded a 48.23-meter throw.
The Penguins will return for the final day of the North Carolina State Raleigh Relays Saturday, March 27, at the Paul Derr Track & Field Facility. Field events scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with running events set to commence at 11 a.m.
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