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Grace, Hamilton still competing
Ex-Penguins Hamilton,
Grace qualify for USA Track and Field indoor
championships
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Less than nine months after their stellar Youngstown State track and field careers ended, Bobby Grace and Samantha Hamilton are set to compete on an even higher level.
Grace (shot put) and Hamilton (two-mile) have both qualified for the USA Track and Field indoor championships, which begin Friday in Boston.
Grace, a Middleburg Heights native, placed third in the shot at last year’s NCAA indoor championship and 14th at the outdoor meet. In a strange twist, he’s one of just two competitors who have qualified for this weekend’s meet, thanks to the USATF increasing the minimum qualifying distance to 19 meters and because many top professionals did not attempt to qualify.
Grace threw 19.68 meters in a meet at YSU on Dec. 5 and will compete against Christian Cantwell, a Nike athlete who threw 20.83.
“It’s a down year for most of the pros because there’s no indoor worlds, so a lot of the big guys are not opening up yet,” said Grace, who competed unattached at the YSU meet. “I’ve never competed in something like this [a two-man event], so it’ll be different. But I’m just excited to go to another big meet since it’s been awhile since outdoor nationals.”
Grace works a few days a week for his father’s consulting company in Cleveland, but still trains at YSU’s WATTS with his college coaches.
“It’s definitely different without school and without quite all the structure I had before, but I’ve gotten a lot of throws in,” said Grace, who will throw Saturday at 4:10 p.m. “I’m still working on a lot of technical stuff, but I’m hoping to have a good week leading up to all this. Hopefully I’ll be feeling good that day and be ready to throw big.”
Hamilton, a Jackson-Milton High graduate, qualified by running a 9:25.12 in the 3K to finish second at last month’s Rod McCravy Memorial in Kentucky, besting her personal record (PR) in college by about three seconds. (Because few meets feature an actual two-mile race, athletes could qualify by running an equivalent qualifying time in the 3K.)
Hamilton has the 10th-fastest time out of the 16 qualifiers on the USATF site in the two-mile. She will race at 3:05 p.m. on March 1.
“It was my first 3K of the season and I had run two one-mile races, but I definitely wasn’t blowing any doors off,” Hamilton said of the McCravy race. “So when I went down to UK, I knew it was a pretty good field and I kind of didn’t know what to expect.
“It took a lot of pressure off because I qualified so early and I knew I didn’t have to think about it anymore. My race is pretty crazy because it has a couple Olympians and a couple World Team members, but I’m super happy to be in the mix. I’ve definitely wanted to compete on a bigger stage for a couple years now.”
Hamilton qualified for last year’s NCAA East outdoor prelims in the 10K, then spent the fall running a road racing schedule that included the 10K Peace Race and a 10-miler. She admits the last few months have been an adjustment, both because she started graduate school in physical therapy in the fall and because she’s had to do much of her training alone, but she still finds time to occasionally train with YSU’s men’s team.
“I feel like I’ve been maturing over the last couple years and I was kind of ready for a different approach,” said Hamilton, who thanked Second Sole and Nike for supporting her post-college career. “It’s no different than when you’re in your last year of high school running and you’re ready to move on and try something new. I really thought being done with college would be a little harder and a little sadder, but I’ve been able to have a completely new approach. I’ve enjoyed it.”