Youngstown State University's men's and women's track teams will open the 2011-2012 indoor season hosting the very first indoor track meet at the WATTS on Friday afternoon. Seven schools will compete in the YSU Invitational, as the throwing events start at 3 p.m. and the running events begin a half hour later.
Buffalo State, Clarion, Duquesne, John Carroll, Robert Morris, and Slippery Rock will be in attendance. For a complete list of events and heat sheets please click here.
YSU returns several letterwinners and top competitors from last season.
In the men's track events, Martin Solomon will compete in the 60m hurdles, the 200m dash, and the 400m dash. Solomon finished fourth in the 60m hurdles and eighth in the 400m at the Horizon League Indoor Championships last season and won the titles in the 110m hurdles and the 400m hurdles at the Horizon League Outdoor Championships. Clay Febus, who also placed in the top five in both of the hurdles events at the outdoor championships last season, will run the 60m hurdles and the 400m dash.
Coming off of a solid cross country season, Brandon Pasvanis, Ryan Pavlicko, and Aron Koir will each run in the 800m and one mile events while freshmen Austin McLean and Nick Gliha compete in the 5,000m run.
On the women's side, sprinters Ciara Jarrett, Kenya Garner, Symona Gregory, Nicole Pachol, and Taylor Entzi are back from a successful 2010-2011 campaign. Jarrett (won the title in the 200m and took third in the 60m at the indoor championships; won both titles in the 100m and the 200m at the outdoor championships), Garner (third in the 200m and sixth in the 60m at the indoor championships; eighth in the 100m at the outdoor championships), and Gregory (ninth in both the 60m and the 200m; third in the 100m and 200m at the outdoor championships) will all run in the 60m and 200m events on Friday.
Jarrett will also run in the 400m along with Pachol (fourth in the 400m and seventh in the 60m hurdles at the indoor championships; third in the 400m hurdles at the outdoor championships) and Entzi (ninth in the 400m in the indoor championships; fourth at the outdoor championships). Pachol and Entzi will also run in the 200m dash.
Brittany Stockmaster and Samantha Atwood, who are also coming off of a strong cross country season, will run the 3,000m.
In the men's field events, Johnny Copley (sixth in the pole vault in the indoor championships; third at the outdoor championships) is set to pole vault on Friday. Bobby Grace (won both the indoor and outdoor titles in the shot put; fourth in the weight throw at the indoor championships; second in the discus and hammer throw at the outdoor championships), Caleb Schwan (third in the weight throw and seventh in the shot put at the indoor championships), and George Thomas (second in the weight throw at the indoor championships; fifth in the discus and the hammer at the outdoor championships) will compete in the shot put and the weight throw.
Competing in the women's field events will be Kendall Homan (eighth in the long jump at the indoor championships and sixth at the outdoor championships in the long jump), Katrina Rettburg (won the high jump at both the indoor and outdoor championships in the high jump), and KaiCee Kubicina (sixth in the shot put at the indoor championships; third in the discus and fourth in the shot put at the outdoor championships) and Alison Roth (second in the shot put at the indoor championships; won the discus and was second in the shot put at the outdoor championships) in the shot put.
