The Youngstown State men's and women's track and field team will have representatives compete in each of the first three days at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships that start on Wednesday in Austin, Texas at the Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Complex.
Competing for YSU are Dorian Chaigneau in the men's pole vault on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. Eastern), Erin Bogard in the women's pole vault on Thursday (8:30 p.m. Eastern) and Zach Gehm in the men's discus on Friday (8:35 p.m. Eastern). All of the events will have specific streams on ESPN+.
The Penguins have sent a school-record three athletes to the outdoor meet. On two other occasions, YSU had two athletes, last year (Wyatt Lefker and Sean Peterson) and 2014 (Bobby Grace and Conner Neu).
Chaigneau, who finished ninth at the Indoor NCAA Championships clearing a height of 5.51m, twice competed at the Division II NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will attending Harding University. In 2022, he won the outdoor championship with a mark of 5.50m and earned a 10th-place finish in 2021.
He will be familiar with the field as 14 of the 24 athletes that are in Texas also competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March. Chaigneau drew the number on position in the lineup. The bar will start at 5.00m before moving to 5.15m, 5.30m, 5.45m, 5.60m, 5.70m, 5.80m and then goes up 0.05 cm per attempt.
In qualifying, he cleared 5.40m to advance to the NCAA meet, which tied his season best. Twice in May he cleared 5.40m.
On Thursday, Bogard will become just second YSU women's athlete and first in 13 years to compete at the NCAA Outdoor meet. She joins thrower Danielle Curry who was 24th in the shot put which earned her Honorable-Mention All-America honors in 2010.
In her event, Bogard drew the ninth position out of 24 athletes. The bar will start at 4.00m before moving to 4.15m, 4.30m, 4.40m, 4.45m and then goes up 0.05 cm per attempt.
She cleared a career-best and school-record 4.20m in early May to clinch her spot at the NCAA meet. She advanced to Texas with clearance of 4.12m at the NCAA Prelims which tied her for 11th.
Gehm is YSU's first-ever competitor in the men's discus at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He will round out the competition for the Guins on Friday evening. In the discus he will throw in Flight 1 of 2. The top nine overall finishers from both flights advance to the final round. Each thrower will get three attempts in the semifinals to move into the top nine.
At the NCAA prelims he finished seventh with a throw of 56.94m to punch his ticket to the finals. He has a school-record and personal-best throw of 58.69m which came at the Jesse Owens Classic in April.
