March 2, 2008

Three Award Winners Help YSU Reclaim Horizon League Title

    Kent, Ohio -- Field MVP Bethany Anderson, top newcomers Breanne Romeo and Danielle Curry and sophomore Alisha Anthony helped lead a second-day surge that gave the Youngstown State women's track and field team its first Horizon League Indoor Track and Field title since 2005.
    Jerrill Hall was also named the Men's Field Newcomer of the Year as the Penguins earned the runner-up trophy for the third straight year.
    Head coach Brian Gorby also accepted the Women's Coach of the Year Award on behalf of the entire staff.
    The Penguins edged Milwaukee 170-159 to end its three-year drought during the indoor season. YSU won in both 2004 and 2005, the latter of which was the freshman year for Anderson and four other seniors.
    The Penguins also captured three straight outdoor titles between 2004 and 2006.
    "These kids came to run today, and the way it looks we may have an opportunity to put another streak together," Gorby said. "But we’ll just take it one at a time, and I’m just so proud of what these kids have done. I could go all the way down the list. We’re talking about 20 or 25 girls who really stepped up for us."
    "This year we felt like our team was extremely deep in some areas where we had four or five people in an event compared to one or two for Milwaukee. We had a lot of people that finished fourth or fifth to go along with our winners.. We have been really young the last couple of years, and you could see that the experience started to come around for us."
    This was also the second time in the last three years that YSU hosted the indoor conference meet at the Kent State Field House. The last time the Penguins hosted in 2006, they finished second to Milwaukee in their only blemish during their three years at the top of the conference.
    Anderson earned the Field Performer of the Meet honor for the second straight year after winning the weight throw on Saturday and placing fourth in the shot put on Sunday. She set meet and school records in the weight throw with a mark of 63-10 1/2 to win the event for the third straight year. Anderson, a senior who had won three straight league titles in the shot put, is one of only three student-athletes in Horizon League history to finish as a three-time champion in two events.
    Romeo placed second in the 400m, seventh in the 200m and anchored YSU's 4x400 relay that finished second by .01 seconds. She is the second Penguin in the last three years to earn the Running Newcomer of the Year Award, joining Katie Betts in 2006.
    Curry was the only freshman at the meet to claim an individual title, and she provided one of the biggest moments for YSU in the shot put. The Field Newcomer of the Year was in fourth place heading into her final throw before heaving the shot 44-4 to win by just over four inches. She added a fifth-place effort in the weight throw.
    Hall was .01 seconds from joining Curry as a freshman league champion in the hurdles. He ran a school-record time of 8.30 to finish second, and he placed second in the high jump and fourth in the long jump.
    If it weren't for Anderson, Anthony was poised to claim the field MVP award. Anthony defended her league title in the long jump with a leap of 18-9 1/4, and she posted the third-best triple jump mark in school history (37-2 1/4) to finish third. Her previous top distance this season in the triple jump was 34-11, and she ranked eighth coming into the meet. She added personal-best times in the 60m (7.87) and 200m (25.63) to finish third and fourth, respectively, and earn a total of 26 points.
    Junior Jen Grayson added her first career league title in the high jump by clearing a season-best height of 5-6, and Yandeh Joh won the pentathlon with 3,319 points.
    Junior Aaron Merrill added a victory in the shot put, breaking school and meet records with a distance of 57-3 3/4.
    The men's squad fell victim to a few injuries and a Milwaukee squad that blew a nine point lead after day one into an eventual 71.5 point victory.
    Katie Betts earned second-place finishes in the 60m (7.83) and the 200m while Katy Wells, Joh and Emily Dumitru placed second through fourth in the hurdles. Emily Wollet (57.81) and Kari Kreutzfeld (57.89) placed fourth and fifth in the 400m while  Jennifer Roman was fourth in the 800m (2:15.64) and Lisa Lee was sixth (2:18.59). Ashley Oliver added a sixth-place finish in the 60m (7.93). Kreutzfeld, Roman and Wollet joined Romeo in the 4x400m.
    In the field, Stephanie Jarvis (10-11 3/4) and Amanda Carpin (10-0) placed third and fourth in the pole vault, and Robyn Ray placed fourth in the high jump (5-0 1/4). Joh added a fourth-place showing in the long jump (18-0 1/2), and Ray was fifth in the triple jump (36-2 3/4). Alexis Hall added a second-place mark in the weigh throw (54-10).
    On the men's side, Eric Baltputnis placed third in the 200m (22.35) and tied for fourth in the 60m (7.08) to pace the sprinters. Jeremiah Wright was third in the 60m (7.05), and Adam Kagarise finished fourth in the 400m (49.10).
    Three Penguins scored in the 800m as Harold Jones was third (1:53.53), J.D. Sheppard was fourth (1:53.63) and R.D. Goodright placed sixth (1:55.09). Goodright also finished fifth in the mile (4:17.25), and Jake Lape was sixth in the 5,000m (15:41.70).
    In the field, Shayne York was third in the long jump (21-9), Johnny Copley was fourth in the pole vault (14-7 1/4) and Bryin Ehrhardt placed sixth in the high jump (6-2).
    John Pallini (50-7 1/2) finished second and Jeremiah Folger (47-8) was fifth in the shot put. Dom DeFilippo was the runner-up in the weight throw (56-1 3/4), Folger was fifth (52-8 1/4) and Merrill was sixth (52-6).