Jacksonville, Fla. – Youngstown State pole vaulter Dorian Chaigneau punched his ticket to the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with an impressive performance on Wednesday night at the NCAA East Prelims at Jax Track and Hodges Stadium.
Chaigneau's performance highlighted a strong day by the YSU men. Overall, YSU had five athletes place in the top 20 of their respective events.
Chaigneau cleared a best height of 5.40m to place fourth overall and move onto his first Division I NCAA Outdoor Championships as a Penguin. He had an impressive night clearing the bar on four of his five attempts. He opened with successful tries at 5.05m, 5.20m and 5.30m. After missing on his first attempt at 5.40m, he zoomed over the bar and advanced to the NCAA finals.
Narrowly missing a trip to the NCAA Championships was Tye Hunt in the long jump. Hunt posted a mark of 7.48m coming up just short of Brown's Zachary Love who had a lead of 7.49m. Hunt was fourth after two heats and stood at 12th in the standings in the late stages. On the second-to-last jump of the competition, LSU's Brandon Hicklin moved into the top 12 with leap of 7.56m to knock out Hunt.
Also in the pole vault, Wyatt Lefker finished 14th at 5.30m. He showed moxie staying in the event with clearances on this third attempts at 5.20m and 5.30m, but could not get over 5.40m, which proved to be the deciding height. His height of 5.30m was good enough to finish ninth, but the progressions knocked him down the list.
To start the day, Weston McLain set a school record in the javelin on his first throw of the meet. He launched a throw of 67.05m. He rode that effort to an impressive 18th place performance.
In the shot put, Dominic Perry had a best throw of 18.44m which came on his final attempt to place a solid 18th place. In his NCAA debut, Ryan Henry had a best effort of 16.81m.
On the track in the 400m hurdles, Harry Barton was part of a fast No. 5 heat and was able to clock a time of 51.66 seconds which was good enough to advance him to Friday evening's Quarterfinals. Despite finishing sixth in his heat, Barton closed well and was able to finish 21st overall as the top 24 moved on.
The women will be in action tomorrow as Addi Watts (javelin), Erin Bogard (pole vault) and Jahniya Bowers (100m) will represent the Guins.
