Hallof throws in with YSU

May 4, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

Two-time Canfield state qualifier picks hometown Penguins

By STEVE WILAJ

YOUNGSTOWN

Ultimately, Andrew Hallof’s decision to continue his track and field career at Youngstown State — the Canfield High senior signed a letter-of-intent on Tuesday — came down to three factors.

“Their new [throws] coach [Tyler Lippert], I think he brings a lot of potential for me at YSU,” said Hallof, a two-time state-competitor in the discus. “And obviously, [head coach Brian] Gorby is there and doing an outstanding job with the runners and getting them where they want to be to succeed. That’s athletically.

“The community that I’ve been around my entire life, I think it’s a good place to stay because I’ll have community backing. And then probably the most important part, they have my major. I’m trying to get into biomedical engineering. So that’s basically why I picked YSU — those three things that fell right into my lap. I couldn’t be more excited.”

Hallof is a 6-foot-3, 210-pounder.

As he mentioned, at YSU, he’ll link up with Lippert — a first-year Penguins coach who most recently spent a year coaching at track and field powerhouse the University of Arkansas. He has had a strong influence on current YSU senior thrower Connor Neu, who earned first-team All-American honors in the winter and will also compete at the national NCAA meet later this spring.

“Coach Lippert, he’s been big time,” Hallof said. “Being down at Arkansas, he got to play with the big boys. He’s gonna be a great coach. I’ve heard a lot of positive things about him.”

Hallof chose the Penguins over the University of Cincinnati.

He also has family in the Cincinnati area — which drew him toward becoming a Bearcat — but when YSU offered to pay for his entire education, he couldn’t pass it up.

“I sat there and weighed out the pros and cons with my family,” Hallof said. “So it was the best of both worlds for both schools, no matter where I would go. But being able to come out of school with no debt whatsoever, that sounds pretty nice.”

Now that Hallof has his college plans in line, the Canfield Cardinal can solely focus on reaching the state tournament for the third time.

As a sophomore, he won the district tournament in the discus throw, finished second in the regional tournament and placed seventh at state with a throw of 161 feet. Last year as a junior, he won districts and regionals, before placing third at state with a throw of 167 feet.

Hallof has progressed more this year, notching an official personal-best throw of 184-feet, 4-inches at Saturday’s Poland Invitational. He also tossed a throw of 189 feet, which occurred at a tri-meet earlier this season but wasn’t officially marked by OHSAA officials.

“I can’t be more happy with the progress that I’ve made,” Hallof said. “When I was looking at other schools, I was told, ‘Yeah you’ll probably throw between 175-185 feet.’ So they didn’t really respond the way I wanted them to and I took that as a challenge.

“So I couldn’t expect a better senior year and I’m really excited to see where the rest of it goes.”