Tomei's Horizon League Champions
Megan Tomei, a Northeast Ohio native, is in her sixth year as throws coach for the Youngstown State men's and women's track and field program.
The Penguins throwers have seen an impressive uptick under the direction of Tomei. In 2023 an impressive five Penguins advanced to the NCAA East Prelims with four placing in the top 22. Headlining the group was Zach Gehm who advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships finishing 17th in the discus. For his performance, Gehm claimed Honorable-Mention All-America honors.
At the 2022 Horizon League indoor championships, Dominic Perry won the shot put and the men wen second, third and fifth in the weight throw. On the women's side, YSU earned third-place finishes in both the shot and weight throw.
At the 2023 HL outdoor championships, the Guins won three titles on the men's side to go along with a runner-up performance while the women won two events and added three second-place efforts. Leading the men to wins were Gehm (discus), Perry (shot put) and Weston McLain (javelin), while Ryan Henry was second in the shot put. For the women, Molly Radcilffe won the hammer throw and Addi Watts won the javelin for the first time in their careers. Radcliffe was second in the discus, Lauren Sheehan was second in the shot put and Olivia Jones was second in the javelin.
At the NCAA East Prelims in Florida, Gehm placed ninth in the discus, Perry was 18th in the shot put, McLain was 18th in the javelin and Watts finished 21st in the javelin. Gehm advanced to the NCAA Championships on the strength of his second throw which were held in Austin, Texas, for the first time in his career.
At the 2022 Horizon League indoor championships, Perry picked up the first weight throw championship of his career while Gehm was just behind him in second place. In the shot put, Perry, Gehm and Brock Grundy went two, three and four while for the women Molly Radcliffe took second.
At the outdoor league meet, Jones and Noah Drudy repeated in the javelin while Perry also repeated in the shot put and Gehm earned his first-ever HL title. Gehm won the discus with a throw of 57.27m while Zach Gray earned a third-place nod. Perry won the men's shot while Gehm earned a third-place finish. For the women, Radcliffe was second in the shot while Lauren Sheehan was third. Gehm and Gray had a second and third-place performance in the hammer throw. YSU went 1-2 in the women's javelin as Jones was followed by Cambrie Campbell. The men took the top three spots in the javelin as Drudy, Noah Weese and Weston McLain led the YSU onslaught.
Drudy, Radcliffe, Perry and Gehm later competed at the NCAA East Prelims.
In 2020-21, the Penguins won three shot put titles and swept the Javelin events. In the javelin, Jones and Drudy each won their first titles in the event at the outdoor meet. Perry swept the indoor and outdoor shot put events while Sammy Dyson won the outdoor shot put. At the outdoor meet, Dyson was named the Championship Outstanding Performer for Field Events. In the hammer, Dyson was second on the women's side while Joe Pfeffer took second for the YSU men. The Guins had a 1-2 finish in the women's shot as Lauren Sheehan took second by Dyson. Gray finished second in the outdoor shot put behind Perry. In the discus, Gray took second while Brock Grundy placed third.
In 2019-20, Tomei guided the Penguins to the men's weight throw title and pair of shot put titles at the Horizon League Indoor Championships. Graduate transfer Ben Butzky won the weight throw title with third best mark in school history at 18.91m and Zach Gehm finished as the runner-up with the fifth furthest throw in program history at 18.51m.
Seniors Brandon Orlando and Dom Westbay took the top two spots in the shot put as Orlando captured the first shot put title for the Penguins since 2017. Alivia Bentley joined the women's team during the second half of the indoor season and went on to capture the shot put title.
In 2018-19, the throwers helped lift the Penguins to a sweep of the indoor and outdoor Horizon League Championships.
During the indoor season, Kaitlyn Merwin won the league championship in the shot put with a personal-best throw of 15.29m. Nicolette Kreatsoulas captured the title in the weight throw after throwing for a personal-best of 17.40m. On the men’s side, the Penguins finished second, third and fourth in the shot put, led by Westbay in second place. In the weight throw, Pfeffer was the top finisher with a fourth place finish.
During the outdoor season for the women, Merwin repeated as the league’s shot put winner while Kreatsoulas was the runner-up. In the discus, Merwin finished as the runner-up, Kreatsoulas was fourth and Dyson took fifth. Kreatsoulas also captured her third consecutive title in the hammer throw and went on to be named the Most Outstanding Performer in the field events. Angela Lock took home her third straight javelin title while Olivia Jones finished in second.
For the men, they took second, third and fourth in the shot put as Gehm led the way as the runner-up. Westbay won the discus with a personal-best throw of 50.31m while Gehm was in second. Jake Wilson and Drudy finished 1-2 in the javelin as Wilson ultimately broke the school record with a throw of 66.98m on May 3. In the hammer throw, Pfeffer recorded a fourth place finish and Andrew Hallof was just behind him in fifth.
Gehm broke an 18-year-old school record in the discus with a throw of 54.17m at the Ashland Alumni Open and was named the Horizon League Men's Field Freshman of the Year. He also qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Round where he finished 50th while also extending hiss school record with a throw of 54.67m. Drudy and Wilson also participated at the prelims finishing 40th and 41st respectively. Wilson threw the javelin 58.91m and Wilson recorded a mark of 57.94m.
Tomei started her coaching career in 2012 at the high school level when she wanted to spread her passion for throwing onto other young athletes. She has coached a multitude of athletes to the OHSAA state meet, including state champions as well as a dozen others reaching the podium. Tomei also helped coach the Marines through the Wounded Warrior Project.
Prior to her coaching career, Tomei was a standout thrower for the Ashland Track and Field program. While throwing the shotput, hammer and weight throws, Tomei was a 15 time All-American and an eight time DII NCAA National qualifier. While serving as a team captain, Tomei was awarded the GLIAC Women's Field Athlete of the Year three years in a row. In 2017, Tomei was named the USTFCCCA Women's Midwest Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year.
A native of Tallmadge, Ohio, Tomei graduated from Ashland University in 2018 with a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science, a minor in Social Work, and a Masters of Business Administration with a focus on Sports Management.
