YSU women defend Horizon track crown

Men’s team finishes in second place

Staff report

ROCHESTER, MICH.

The Youngstown State women’s track and field team defended its Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field title with a solid three-day performance at Oakland University. The Penguins earned their second straight Triple Crown holding off Milwaukee, 156-148 on Sunday.

In the men’s tournament, YSU came up short of defending its championship, finishing second.

The women’s championship was the 25th conference title in the program’s cross country/indoor track and field/outdoor track and field history for both the men and women.

The women have won nine outdoor titles, including three of the last four and eight since 2004. For the second consecutive season YSU won the cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field titles.

The Penguins were able to fight off a hard-charging Panthers squad thanks to two wins by Nina Grambling and a key start to the day with a win in the 4x100 relay. In the 4x100, YSU had a time of 46.68 seconds beating Milwaukee by .07 seconds. Grambling ran anchor on relay team that freatured Savannah Osborne, Destiny Hall and Taylor Thompkins.

Grambling, who won the long jump on Saturday, took first in the 100m dash and 200m dash on Sunday. An impressive time of 11.95 seconds in the 100m dash gave her the title by 0.34 seconds. In the 200m dash she ran away from the field with a time of 24.16 seconds to win by 0.69 seconds.

Her performance in the 100m dash was her third straight win in the event. She is the first woman in League history to win the 100m three times. Grambling has seven Horizon League individual outdoor championships in her career.

Behind Grambling in the 100m dash was Thompkins who grabbed third place with a time of 12.34 seconds while Hall took fifth at 12.65 seconds.

In the 400m, Jennifer Shiley placed fourth in the 400m dash with a time of 56.21 seconds. She was also sixth in the 200m.

Taylor McDonald had a big performance in the 400m hurdles placing second with a time of 1:01.80. In the triple jump, Ellie Pollock was third with a leap of 11.46 meters while Osborne took fifth with a distance of 11.26m.

Head Coach Brian Gorby was named the Women’s Coach of the Year. Grambling earned a pair of awards, the Outstanding Running Performer of the Meet and the Women’s Point Total Champion. McDonald was named the Freshman of the Meet (Running).

MEN

Winning events on the final day to lead the YSU charge was Conner Neu (hammer throw), Arnaldo Morales (high jump) and Leighton Antonio (100m dash).

Antonio burst on the scene over the weekend with an impressive performance to win the 100m dash. Antonio ran a time of 11.03 seconds to win while teammate Carl Zallow placed second with a time of 11.11 seconds.