Senior Bobby Grace placed third at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships this past March. It was an impressive feat for Grace, who is the YSU/Vindicator Male Athlete of the Year.
Grace, who has won six individual Horizon League titles, looks to add to his career awards haul this weekend when the Penguins play host to the Horizon League Outdoor Championships.
Grace has already thrown a distance to put him in the NCAA Prelims to keep his hopes of another outstanding finish at the Outdoor NCAA Championships, which will be in June. He set a school record in the shot put with a toss of 19.56m on April 19 at the Jesse Owens Classic held in Columbus. That distance is the seventh best in the country this year.
On March 15 at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., he had a heave of 19.90 meters (65-3.5 feet) on his fifth attempt in the finals to place third behind Texas's Ryan Crouser and Stephen Mozia of Cornell. The throw gave Grace the distinction of being just the second All-American in school history. With the toss, he smashed his own school record and personal best by .28 meters. Four of his tosses in the finals were 19.23m or longer.
Two weeks prior, Grace won the Indoor Horizon League shot put crown with a toss of 19.13 meters which destroyed the conference mark of 17.62m.
Grace did not compete during the 2012-13 season, redshirting and setting himself up for a tremendous senior campaign.
In the outdoor season of 2012, Grace had his first taste of NCAA competition when he was 15th with a then-best throw of 18.12 meters at the Preliminary round. Prior to the event, he won three events at the Horizon League Championships to be named the Most Outstanding Field Performer. He won the discus with a toss of 50.29 meters, won the hammer throw with a heave of 57.98 meters and won the shot put with a toss of 18.30 meters. In the indoor campaign, he finished second in the shot put and fourth in the weight throw.
As a sophomore, he won his first Horizon League crown during the indoor meet in the shot put. Grace had a toss of 16.03 meters and also placed fourth in the weight throw. Later at the outdoor meet, he won the shot put (16.14 meters) and claimed runner-up placing in the discus and hammer throws. As a freshman, he was third at the indoor meet in the shot put and did not compete at the outdoor meet.
Grace has improved his outdoor shot put from 15.85m as a freshman to 19.56m as a senior. His indoor best was also 15.85m as a freshman, and he posted that impressive 19.90m toss in his final meet as a senior. His career-best throw of 17.72 meters in the weight throw came at the 2014 Horizon League meet. His best discus toss was 51.59m on April 14, 2012, while his best hammer throw was 57.98m on May 6, 2012.
A graduate of Midpark High School, the Cleveland native is an economics major. Grace is also a 2013-14 recipient of the Penguin Club Scholarship. He is the son of Beth and Bob Grace.
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