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Zallow wins at Penn Relays
YSU track star tops talented field
in 110-meter hurdles at storied meet
By Dan Hiner
While the Youngstown State track and field teams were at the Ashland Alumni Invitational, Chad Zallow and a few select Penguins were competing in the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Zallow once again won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.72 seconds. He finished 0.8 seconds ahead of Princeton’s Joseph Daniels.
The meet featured athletes from power conferences such as the Pac-12, Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Chad Zallow’s competition from larger programs included William Session from Indiana, Kirk Lewis from Clemson and Amere Lattin from Houston.
For the Warren JFK graduate, the competition is only going to make him better. After competing in the Horizon League and the NYRR Millrose Games during the indoor season, Zallow already believes he’s improved.
“Week by week I’ve been getting faster and faster,” he said. “And that’s what you want to do in track. You want to get faster and faster as the week goes on.
“So far I’m doing that here. YSU competed against the best here today.”
For placing first in his event, Zallow received a gold watch.
Zallow, his brother Carl, Brendon Lucas and Collin Harden also represented YSU in the meet which featured representatives of over 100 schools from across the country.
The four members of the men’s 4x100 relay were all graduates of Mahoning Valley high schools.
Chad and Carl Zallow graduated from Warren JFK, Lucas is a Boardman native and Harden is a Girard alumnus.
The Valley natives finished sixth in the College Final with a time of 40.59 seconds
The four also finished 15th with a time of 41.48 seconds in the 4x100 relay heats, which featured 65 programs.
“Our team, it’s four guys from the Youngstown area so it’s definitely something special to go out there against schools that recruit kids from across the country,” Chad Zallow said.
“It’s just guys from the Mahoning Valley going out there, competing against some of the best in the country and putting up the good fight.”
While the relay team finished well, the Penguins didn’t qualify for the championship race.
YSU sprinter Jaliyah Elliot finished sixth in the 100-meter dash championship with a time of 11.70.
The attendance for the final day of the meet was 47,756.
Chad Zallow said the environment was different from most meets due to the number of people in the crowd and the competition.
“It was just a great atmosphere today, about 40,000 people in the crowd,” Chad Zallow said. “It’s definitely a little different from what I’m used too. It was definitely a little different feeling ... a lot more nerves, a lot more excitement going on.”