The Youngstown State men's and women's track and field teams built extreme momentum for the upcoming Horizon League Track and Field Championships with a dominating effort at the first-ever YSU Last Chance Invitational presented by Southwoods Health on Friday at the WATTS.
Overall, YSU athletes took the top step of the podium in 15 events on the day.
Winning events for the men were Jake Mcentyre (60m and 200m), William Delbaugh (400m), Luke Laubacher (60m hurdles), Aaron Berardinelli (triple jump), Jaden Kirkwood (shot put) and Ryan Tetrick (weight throw).
Winning events for the women were Elle Pearsall (60m dash), Melody Harloff (200m and 400m), Grace Rhoades (3,000m), Ava Littler (60m hurdles), Nedgine Morancy (triple jump), Molly Radcliffe (shot put) and Lauren Sheehan (weight throw).
Mcentyre led a first and third effort in the 60m dash with a time of 6.87 seconds while Joseph Owusu-Ansah was third at 6.95 seconds.
In the 60m hurdles, Laubacher led a 1-2-3-4 YSU dominant performance. He won with a time of 7.73 seconds while Micah Mitchell took second, Clancy Chrystal was third and Garret Laubacher was fourth.
In the 200m, Mcentyre won with a time of 21.72 seconds while William Delbaugh was fourth and Owusu-Ansah was fifth. In the 400m, Delbaugh clocked a winning time of 49.75 seconds while Jarret Gordulic was fourth running a 51.06 and Teziah Howard was fifth at 51.21.
In the 3,000m, Josh Jones was third with a time of 8:44.19.
In the high jump, YSU was second, third and fifth. Placing second at 2.01m was Nathan Leskovac, while Noah Crozier was third at 1.98m and Mason Stephens came in fifth at 1.95m.
In the pole vault, Lukas Lang was second with a career-best mark of 5.02m while Olympian Matt Ludwig won with a WATTS record of 5.50m. Ian Quarles was fourth at 4.87m while Dakota Keifer was fifth at 4.77m.
Berardinelli won the triple jump with a best leap of 13.64m. Andrew Frank took second place in the long jump with a leap of 7.04m.
Kirkwood helped the Guins go first, second and third in the shot put. He won with a throw of 16.42m while Coleson Kertesz was second and Dominic Brown was third. Tetrick had a top throw of 17.46m in the weight throw as Kertesz was second Kienan Donovan was third and Brown came in fourth.
Pearsall ran a time of 7.62 seconds in the 60m to run away with the victory. Littler led a 1-2 finish in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.60 seconds while Lea Parham was runner up at 8.85 seconds.
Harloff claimed victory in the 200m with a time of 25.07 seconds while Pearsall was third at 25.97 seconds and Abbigail Schleicher was fourth at 26.78 seconds.
Harloff cruised to victory in 400m with a time of 58.92 seconds while Schleicher was third at 59.99 seconds. In the 800m, Aimyia Dudley was second with a time of 2:20.67 while Bre Joki was fifth with a time of 2:24.94.
Rhoades won the 3,000m with a time of 10:27.76 while in the mile Lillian Katsaras was third with a time of 5:18.06.
Radcliffe had a winning throw of 14.33m in the shot put the crush the competition. Sheehan won the weight throw with a toss of 17.32m while Krista Perry was second and Grace Sparks claimed third.
In the triple jump, Morancy won with a leap of 11.21m and she placed fourth in the long jump at 5.15m.
In the high jump, Kalli Knoble was second with a best mark of 1.58m. In the pole vault, Ainsley Hamsher had a career-best and school-record-tying mark of 4.13m to finish second to Olympian Brynn King (4.60m). Melana Schumaker came in fourth at 3.87m.
On Saturday, YSU will have women's distance runners in action in Boston and have athletes competing at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas.
