Sam Kuhn
Senior Sportswriter
On Saturday, Feb. 10, the men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Westerville, Ohio to compete in the All-Ohio Championships. To highlight the meet, the Scots compiled three top-five finishes and five top-eight finishes on the day.
Jack Petrecca ’19 won the high jump with a personal best of 6 feet, 7 inches, edging out jumpers from Ohio Wesleyan University and the University of Mount Union by a single inch. The All-Ohio certificate was the first of his career. Carolyn Webster ’19 also earned an All-Ohio certificate in the high jump — the fourth of her career. She jumped 5 feet, 3 inches, which was good for third place.
Rounding out the women’s side, Elizabeth Obi ’18 finished sixth in the triple jump with 34 feet, 5 inches, while coming in eighth in the high jump, nearly eclipsing her personal best with a jump of 5 feet, 0.5 inches. In the pole vault, Georgia Hopps-Weber ’21 finished 13th overall at 10 feet, 3.25 inches. The women’s 4×400 relay team of Julia Higgins ’19, Regan Szalay ’20, Zoe Covey ’21 and Emani Kelly ’19 took home 11th with a time of 4:22.92.
On the men’s side, the 4×400 relay team of Petrecca, Justin Fox ’19, Matt Klonowski ’21 and Brian Lief ’19 finished in 11th place.
Concerning the day in general, Petrecca said, “I think we have plenty of talent spread across most all events, and once we all get healthy and come together at the conference meet I think we can surprise a lot of people. We’re at the point in the season where things get more exciting and intense, so training hard and preparing for that atmosphere is the most important thing.”
David Westcott ’19 came in fifth, missing out on All-Ohio honors by just six seconds in the 5,000 meter run. Although missing the podium, he beat his previous best time by about 30 seconds.
Rounding out the men’s performances were Tom Helsel ’18, who came in 15th in the triple jump and Jacob Nowell ’18, who came in 15th in the pole vault.
Westcott remarked about the team’s potential, “This team has great potential to be a phenomenal team. We just need to keep focused and keep being patient with our training, but I know we can compete and challenge with some of the great teams in our conference. We have people that can challenge the competition in every event. The important thing is to stay patient. The way our system is [designed] is to have us peak in May, so [we make sure that when] we don’t get the result early on we don’t get frustrated and stay focused.”
The Scots still have a long season to go and they hope to improve throughout the rest of their events this year en route to the indoor and outdoor championships later this May. Tomorrow, the Scots travel to Gambier, Ohio for the Kenyon College Classic.