Penguins Set For Three Big Meets in Three Different States

Friday, February 10

Fayetteville, AR

3:15 PM

Youngstown State University

Tyson Invitational

Penguins Set For Three Big Meets in Three Different States

2/9/2023 9:00:00 AM | Track and Field

The Youngstown State men's and women's track and field teams will get an opportunity to compete against some of the best athletes in the country at meets this Friday and Saturday.

YSU is sending a group of athletes to the Tyson Invitational hosted by Arkansas at the Randal Tyson Track Center while a group distance runner's head to Boston for the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational. The bulk of the squad is set to make the trip up to Geneva, Ohio, for the SPIRE Collegiate Indoor Games Track and Field meet which runs throughout the day on Saturday.

At the Tyson Invitational, the Guins will face athletes from Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Florida, Nebraska, Iowa, Arizona State, Colorado, Oklahoma State among others. In Boston, UCLA, Michigan, Rutgers, UConn, Texas, Syracuse and others will be in action alongside the Penguins.

In Boston, the women will run in the 800m, mile, 3,000m and the DMR while the men's runners are in the mile and 3,000m. Hunter Christopher leads the strong contingent to Beantown having already set the YSU records in the 3,000m and 5,000m runs this season. Morgan Cole will run in the 3,000m for the women after narrowly missing the school record in the mile last week at Ashland.

In Arkansas, YSU has athletes in the field events and the women's sprint events and both the men's and women's 60m hurdles.

For the women, Jahniya Bowers and Kyndia Matlock will be in action in the 60m dash on Friday and the 200m dash on Saturday. Bowers won both events last week at the Scarlet Knights Open at the Armory Track Center in New York City. She has a best time of 7.27 seconds in the 60m and set the school record of 23.77 seconds in the 200m at the YSU Mid-Major Invitational.

Madison Murry will compete in the women's 60m hurdles event while Luke Laubacher will run in the men's 60m hurdles on Friday. Both Murry and Laubacher start their races in the prelims which begin at 5:20 p.m. Central time.

Representing the YSU women in the field events are Erin Bogard (pole vault), Olivia Jones (high jump), Nia Williams-Matthews (triple jump), Esther Solarin (triple jump), Molly Radcliffe (weight throw and shot put) and Lauren Sheehan (weight throw). The weight throw and pole vault are Friday while the shot put, triple jump and shot put are Saturday.

Competing in the field events for the men are Dorian Chaigneau (pole vault), Wyatt Lefker (pole vault), Blake Sifferlin (pole vault), Samuel Challis (triple jump), Jakari Lomax (triple jump), Tye Hunt (long jump), Terron Taylor (high jump), Lonnie Harper (high jump), Dominic Perry (shot put), Zach Gray (shot put) and Ryan Henry (shot put). The long jump is on Friday while all the other events are on Saturday.

On Saturday, nearly 40 members of the squad will travel up to the SPIRE Institute to compete against some of the top competition in the region.

This weekend's meets mark the last big weekend of competition for the Penguins prior to the Horizon League Championships which are set for Feb. 25-26 in Fort Wayne, Ind.