THE GREAT OUTDOORS

By Joe Scalzo

YSU’s women’s track team edges Milwaukee for title

YOUNGSTOWN — With their hands on their knees and little energy left, Youngstown State 4x400-meter relay runners Emily Wollet and Breanne Romeo leaned over to watch the last leg of the last event of the last day of the Horizon League track and field championships Friday at Youngstown State University.

As Kari Kreutzfeld crossed the finish line ahead of second-place Milwaukee-Wisconsin, Wollet mustered whatever energy she had left to walk over and congratulate her teammate. She held out her hand, but Kreutzfeld went instead for a please-catch-me-before-I-collapse hug.

“Can you get her?” Wollet said to someone nearby. “I can hardly stand up.”

The victory put the finishing touches on back-to-back track and field titles for the Penguins, whose win over second-place U-W would probably have been more dramatic had they not already clinched the title just before the last event began.

(But we quibble.)

“I feel like I was a lot more relaxed knowing we were up by enough points to win, but at the same time it gave me that much more drive to want to get first in the 4x4,” said Romeo, who led off the relay. “It was awesome, a great feeling.”

Romeo, a freshman who graduated from Boardman High last spring, also won the open 400 — her time of 55.36 was just .01 off the conference record — and placed sixth in the 200 to win Horizon Running Newcomer of the Year.

When asked about the near-miss in the 400, Romeo smiled and said, “I honestly didn’t even hear them say that — I was so exhausted afterward. It didn’t bum me out at all.

“It kind of gives me more of a drive to do that much better next year, even though it’s not that much. I was happy to know I could be that close to the record as a freshman.”

Romeo wasn’t the only Penguin freshman who had a big meet. Teammate Alisha Anthony, a redshirt freshman, was named field newcomer of the year after finishing second in the long jump and first in the triple jump. Anthony had won the league’s indoor long jump title two years in a row — she redshirted last year’s outdoor season — and was in first place until the final jump Thursday, when Milwaukee’s Beth Zimmerman edged her by three-fourths of an inch.

“I just used that to push me farther,” she said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. After that [loss], I decided to have fun and go after something big in the triple.”

The triple jump victory was unexpected — she entered the meet seeded sixth — but it was those kinds of performances that clinched it for the Penguins, said Coach Brian Gorby.

“We talked about being tough, strong, persevering, being resilient and every one of those kids came through,” said Gorby, who was named the league’s coach of the year after leading YSU to the 16-point victory. “We had our big guns, but we also had eight girls score one point. Those add up.”

The Penguins had several athletes battling injuries — sprinter Katie Betts had a bad back, high jumper Jen Grayson had a bad knee and thrower Bethany Anderson nearly redshirted this season due to injury, to name three — but they stepped up when it counted, Gorby said.

“It was a phenomenal team effort,” said Gorby, who praised his entire coaching staff and just about everyone on his team during the post-meet interview. “That’s what happens when everyone believes in each other and steps up for each other.”

YSU also won the indoor crown in March. The titles were the only league championships won by YSU teams in 2007-08 — and that includes the men’s teams. To win it at home — this was YSU’s first home track meet since the Penguins competed in the Mid-Continent Conference in 2001 — made it even sweeter.

“It’s a great feeling knowing you have so many supporters,” said Romeo. “Two championships in one year? I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

scalzo@vindy.com