Rochester, Mich. - The Youngstown State men's track and field team earned wins in the shot put and pole vault on a strong second day of the Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at the Elaine Leigh Track and Field Complex.
In the team standings, YSU has 116 points while Milwaukee is second with 72 and Purdue Fort Wayne is third with 56.
Both Ryan Henry (shot put) and Dorian Chaigneau (pole vault) won Horizon League events for the first time in their outdoor careers.
YSU dominated in the long jump with athletes placing second, third, fourth and sixth. Jakari Lomax led the way with a career-best leap of 7.54m on his final attempt. Luke Laubacher was third with an early jump of 7.50m, which was also a lifetime best. Laubacher left the competition after his second jump to compete in the 110m hurdles and later the 100m and 200m. Finishing fourth was Andrew Frank (7.14m) while Samuel Challis (7.01m) placed sixth.
Henry won the shot put on his final toss when he ripped a winning throw of 18.89m. The throw was a career best for Henry and moved him into second place in YSU history. Taking second place was Dominic Perry who had a throw of 17.79m while Coleson Kertesz took sixth at 15.52m.
The final event to conclude during the day was the pole vault which ended at 7:22 pm.
YSU took the top three spots and fifth of the top six in the pole vault as Chaigneau won by clearing the bar at 5.30m. Blake Sifferlin was second at 5.20m, Jack Vecellio was third at 5.00m, Lukas Lang placed fifth at 4.90 and Dakota Keifer was sixth at 4.70m.
In the steeplechase, Connor Shingleton raced home to finish third with a time of 9:20.00. Shingleton was in seventh entering the final lap before turning it on to move up four positions. Keegan Barnette finished seventh with a time of 9:33.25.
In the decathlon, Karl Kain finished seventh scoring 4,519 points.
YSU had much success in the qualifying running events as well.
Four advanced in the 110m hurdles as Laubacher had the top time with a 14.08 seconds, Micah Mitchell had the third-fastest time at 14.30 seconds and Clancy Chrystal (14.76) and Garrett Laubacher (14.93) all moved on to Sunday. In the 400m hurdles, Harry Barton (54.74), Mitchell (57.42) and Chrystal (55.36) all advanced to the finals.
In the 400m, Harry Barton clocked a time of 48.38 seconds to advance to tomorrow's finals in the event. In the 800m, William Hanchosky ran a time of 1:53.29 to be the fastest qualifier for the finals. Also advancing was Tobias Jones who clocked a 1:55.47.
In the 100m, Christian Ford reached the finals running the second-fastest time of 10.51 seconds. Also advancing was Laubacher who clocked a time of 10.62 seconds. In the 200m, Ford and Laubacher had the top two times to move onto the finals. Ford posted a time of 21.57 second and Laubacher ran a 21.62 seconds.
The final day of competition begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday with the men's triple jump. Running events are set to get underway at noon.
