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YSU qualifies nine for NCAA East prelims
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Youngstown State junior Eric Rupe will join teammate Austin McLean at this weekend’s NCAA East preliminaries in Jacksonville, Fla. The Maplewood High graduate is one of nine Penguins competing this weekend and one of five Valley natives competing.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Last May, Youngstown State shot putter John Seaver traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., for the NCAA East preliminaries, where he threw a personal-best to narrowly miss qualifying for the national championships.
It was a great experience. And a lonely one.
“Yeah, last year it was just me and [sprinter] Ciara Jarett,” said Seaver, a South Range High graduate. “It was pretty fun, but there wasn’t a whole lot of team there.”
That’s not a problem this year.
Seaver is one of a school-record nine athletes headed to this week’s preliminary meet at the University of North Florida, a list that includes five from Mahoning or Trumbull County: Seaver, high jumpers Jay Jakovina (Fitch) and Arnoldo Morales (Struthers) and distance runners Eric Rupe (Maplewood, steeplechase) and Samantha Hamilton (Jackson-Milton, 10K). They’ll join Bobby Grace (shot put), Connor Neu (hammer), Austin McLean (steeplechase) and Jessica Parham (javelin).
“That’s insane,” said Morales. “Knowing there are so many of us from Mahoning and Trumbull County, it’s pretty sweet.”
“That’s a pretty big deal for us,” Rupe added. “We’re not fully funded [with the maximum number of NCAA scholarships] and it feels like that’s how many are on the whole track team. And it’s not like it’s all one event, like we just have a bunch of sprinters. It’s from different areas. We’ve got throwers and jumpers and distance guys.
“I think we lose a lot of area recruits [to other schools] because people think you can’t do big things at YSU. We’re showing that you can.”
There are 48 athletes in each preliminary event, with the top 12 moving on to the outdoor championships from June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore. The West preliminaries, which are in Fayetteville, Ark., will also qualify 12 in each event.
Grace, who finished third in the shot put at the NCAA indoor meet in March, is seeded ninth this weekend and Neu is 10th — the only Penguins seeded in the top 12.
McLean (27th) and Rupe (28th) are the next-highest, followed by Jakovina (31st), Morales (42nd), Seaver (45th), Hamilton (45th) and Parham (48th).
The Penguins are finishing up arguably their best season since joining the Horizon League in 2001, with the women’s tennis team and baseball team both winning league titles along with the women’s cross country team, the women’s indoor track team and both the men’s and women’s outdoor track teams.
Of the 39 athletes on the women’s track team, 18 are from the tri-county area, while 16 of the 30 men’s athletes are from the Valley.
“That’s a huge thing,” Jakovina said. “To win all those conference championships and send nine people to regionals, I think that speaks volumes about the talent in this area.”