April 12, 2009

Lahmon and Tisia Punch Tickets to Regionals at Sea Ray Relays

    Knoxville, Tenn. -- The Youngstown State men's track and field program now has three regional qualifiers after just two outdoor meets as both senior Joe Lahmon and freshman Kiplangat Tisia qualified for the NCAA Mideast Regionals at the Sea Ray Relays over the weekend. YSU junior Aaron Merrill had previously qualified for regionals two weeks ago.
    Lahmon, who owns the school record in the hammer throw, hit the regional mark in the event with a distance of 58.23m to finish in first.

    Tisia's fifth-place time of 9:05.86 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase earned him a spot in regionals. Also with that time, Tisia now ranks third all-time in school history in the event.

     Five other Penguins also posted personal best times and marks in Knoxville.

    For the men, Merrill threw a personal-best distance of 49.68m in the discus, ranking second in school-history. In addition, Merrill hit the regional mark again in the shot put this season as he threw a distance 17.30m to finish in seventh.

    Sophomore Jerrill Hall had a personal-best time of 14.70 seconds in the 110m hurdles to finish in 17th. 

    The men's 4x800m team of R.D. Goodright, Harold Jones, Rick Lape, and J.D. Sheppard posted a sixth-place time of 7:41.81 that ranks second-fastest at YSU. Goodright also added a 12th-place finish in the 800m with a time of 1:53.58.

    On the women's side, senior Yandeh Joh and sophomores Danielle Curry and Alexis Hall had career days. Joh ran a personal-best time in 100m hurdles with a time of 14.57 seconds, ranking fourth all-time in school history.

    Curry threw a personal-best distance of 43.78m in the discus to ranks fifth all-time in YSU history. Hall finished fifth in the hammer throw with a personal-best distance of 50.31m, ranking second in school history.

    Other top finishers included Alisha Anthony who had a 10th place finish in the triple jump with a mark of 5.69m and an 11th place finish in the long jump with a distance of 5.69m. Kayla Witmer finished in eighth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 37:53.26.
    The Penguins will travel to Berea on Saturday to take part in the Sparky Adams Invitational.