The Youngstown State men's and women's track and field teams had a solid all-around performance at the YSU Last Chance Invitational presented by Southwoods Health on Friday at the WATTS.
McKinley Fielding (3,000m), Josh Jones (3,000m), Micah Mitchell (60m Hurdles), Lea Parham (60m Hurdles), Joseph Owusu-Ansah (60m) and Trenton Shutters (800m) all won individual events for the Penguins in their last main competition prior to the Horizon League Championships which will be held at YSU in two weeks.
The Guins capped off the evening with a win in the 4x400m relay clocking a time of 3:52.44 beating Akron by a second.
Runner up performances came from three women's athletes, Karis McElhaney (800m), Ainsley Hamsher (pole vault) and Jaylynn King (weight throw) all had outstanding efforts.
In the sweep of the 3,000m, Fielding threatened to break the school record that has stood since 2012. Fielding's quest came down to the final seconds and her winning time of 9:29.20 was less than a second off the top mark and .02 off the second spot. Jones concluded a YSU sweep in the 3,000m with a time of 8:28.05.
YSU also swept the 60m hurdle races. Mitchell had a personal-best time of 7.84 seconds. Parham cruised to the victory with a time of 8.61 seconds.
Owusu-Ansah won a tightly-contested 60m dash with a time of 6.77 seconds. Shutters came home with a time of 1:52.81 to win the 800m.
McElhaney posted a time of 2:14.77 to finish second in the 800m. Hamsher cleared 3.93m in the seeded pole vault. King had a toss of 18.37m.
Ava Reeves posted a third-place finish in the 60m dash with a time of 7.65 seconds.
Owusu-Ansah lowered his top time in the 200m to 21.21 seconds to finish third while Caedeon Trotter placed fourth posting a time of 21.62 seconds.
In the men's 400m, Teziah Howard was fifth with a personal-best time of 48.53 seconds which moves him into the school's top 10 in the event. In the women's 400m, Tori Atkins came in fifth clocking a time of 56.59 seconds.
Brandon Hutchinson clocked a personal-best time of 7.99 seconds in the 60m hurdles to finish in fourth place. Ava Littler added a fifth-place time in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.82 seconds. In the men's 3,000m, Caleb Prettyman came in fourth with a time of 8:34.96.
In the men's pole vault, both Lukas Lang and Jak Rovan had career-best efforts. Lang finished fourth with a mark of 5.12m while Rovan cleared 4.97m. For the women, Melana Schumaker was fourth at 3.78m.
