By: McKenzie Morrison

February 24, 2023: The men’s and women’s indoor track team started their season on December 2nd at the Youngstown State Icebreaker. Senior Quintin Weaver placed 24th in the 5,000m run. Senior Brock Newsome placed 27th in the men’s 1-mile, while Matt Beueramann and Austin Krieger finished 30th and 36th in the 1-mile. Senior Hannah Strott finished 11th in the 1-mile and junior Hannah Jones finished in the top 20. Jones said, “It was a great way to start the season”.

The team then traveled to Youngstown State University again on January 20th for the YSU Collegiate Invitational. The invitational was a big day for the Tomcats. Senior Quintin Weaver broke the school’s men’s 800-meter with the time of 1:59:36. Weaver stated, “It felt great to beat the record especially with it being my senior year. Hopefully I can break some more this season”. Thiel’s men’s 800-meter record had not been broken for 25 years.

In the men’s 1-mile, Brock Newsome placed 44th, with Legion Lake, and Tristan Mylnarak finishing 74th and 76th. For the women, another record was broken when Kaylee Suarez broke her personal record of 1.52 in the women’s high jump and finished 3rd for the day. Hannah Strott finished 42nd in the 1-mile as well as Brooke Griffith and Ava Kidder finished 60th and 66th. In the women’s 400, Tumba Powell finished 35th.

In a Mid-February meet the men’s team had many top two finishes starting with Tyrese Ogletree who had two top finishes in the men’s 400-meter run. John Bresnan also placed with two top finishes in the 400-meter and the 200-meter. Andre Williams finished first in the men’s triple jump with a distance of 13.26 meters. Williams also finished 2nd in the men’s long jump with a leap of 6.30 meters. In the men’s shotput, Nicholas Kobielus finished 9th with a throw of 12.16 meters.

On the women’s team, Savanna Welch finished 10th in the women’s 1-mile run with a time of 7:24.30. Kendall McLaughlin finished 4th in the 400-meter run, Hannah Strott and Hannah Jones finished 4th and 9th in the women’s 500-meter run. The freshman even had top two finishes for the women with Emily Reese placing 5th in the 55-meter dash and Brooke Griffith finishing 8th. Kaylee Suarez finished 3rd in the high jump, Alexis Mcfadden finished 4th in the long jump, and 6th in the triple jump. Finishing off the day, Brooke Mottley finished 13 in shotput and 11th in women’s weight throw. Overall, an amazing day for both the men’s and women’s track teams.

At the Raider Tune-Up on February 18th, 3 school records were set starting with the men’s distance medley team that broke the record for the second time this season. The women’s distance medley team also broke the record that has stood since 2014. Lastly, Kaylee Suarez broke the women’s high jump record that has stood since 2010.

At the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Indoor Championship, Junior thrower Brooke Mottley had some thoughts going into the championship. Brooke states “I am in hopes of a podium finish in shotput and weight throw. I would love to set a new personal best to finish the indoor season. I have been working to break the weight throw record and plan to see that hard work pays off. As a team, I think we will do great things Thursday. This past weekend we broke 3 school records. We all support each other and push each other, and we expect to see our hard work pay off.”

In the championship, men’s high jumper Caleb Learn, finished 4th with a 1.85-meter jump. For the women’s high jump, Kaylee Suarez finished 1st and beat the PAC record with a 1.57. Tumba Powell finished in 8th. Alexis McFadden finished 11th in the women’s long jump and the women’s triple jump. In the men’s long jump, Andre Williams finished 5th with a 6.35 jump and Caleb Learn and John Bresan finished 13th and 18th. In the men’s triple jump, Andre Willims took 1st place with a jump of 13.56. For the men’s weight throw, Keith Rager took 9th with an 11.75 throw and Anthony Baileys took 14th with an 11.03. In women’s shotput, Brooke Mottley took 9th with a 10.97, with Tessa Weaver (21st), Isabelle LLiev (29th), and Teagan Pierce (31st). In the final field event in men’s shotput Nicholas Kobeielus finished in 14th with a 12.35m throw followed by Keith Rager (20th), Frank Fugman (27th), and Mark Little (36th).

For the runners, Austin Krieger finished 24th with a 10:34.84. In the women’s 1-mile, Hannah Strott took 7th with a 5:24.61, followed by Hannah Jones (15th), Brooke Griffith (23rd), Ava Kidder (25th), and Savanna Welch(28th). In the Men’s 1-mile, Brock Newsome took 8th with a 4:28.58 finish, followed by Matt Beuermann (20th), and Tristan Mlynarek (25th). Tumba Powell finished 3rd in the Women’s 400 with a 1:00.68 and in the Men’s 400, Tyrese Ogletree finished 13th with a 54.25. For women’s 800, Lillianna Briscoe finished 10th with a time of 2:33.55 followed by Brooke Griffith (18th), Ava Kidder (19th), and Savanna Welch (21st).  For the Men’s 800, Quintin Weaver finished 4th with a 1:57.03, and Tristan Mlynarek (24th).

The women’s 200-dash saw Tumba Powell finish in 5th with a 27.06 followed by Kaylee Suarez (16th). For the men’s 200 dash, John Bresnan took 17th with a 23.93 followed by Tyrese Ogletree (22nd) and Dakota King (23rd). The women’s distance medley finished in 7th with a time of 13:44.42. The medley team was made up of Hannah Jones, Tumba Powell, Lillianna Briscoe, and Hannah Strott. The men’s distance medley finished 2nd with a time of 10:46.37. Their team was made up of Matt Beuermann, Tyrese Ogletree, Quintin Weaver, and Brock Newsome. Finally, for the track portion of the Indoor PAC Championship, the Women’s 4×400 finished 8th with a time of 4:38.69. The team was made up of Kaylee Suarez, Hannah Strott Lillianna Briscoe, and Tumba Powell. For the Men’s 4x 400, they finished 8th with a time of 3:39.43. The men’s team was made up of John Bresnan, Matt Beuerman, Tyrese Ogletree, and Quintin Weaver. The final results for the Indoor PAC Track and Field Championship had the women place 9th with a score of 29 points and the men place 8th with a score of 34 points. The track and field teams start their outdoor seasons on March 18th at Muskingum University.