Scots to Host 11-Team Wooster Invitational Saturday

Kayla Miller

The College of Wooster track & field teams will host their lone meet of the season this week, as the Fighting Scots welcome 10 visiting squads for the annual Wooster Invitational, held at Carl Munson Track on Saturday, March 31. It will be a scored meet, and expected to participate are Case Western Reserve University, Cuyahoga Community College, Denison University, Edinboro University, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Lake Erie College, Notre Dame (Ohio) College, Thiel College, and Walsh University, along with the Fighting Scots. The Wooster Invitational is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., with the field events, and the track events start at noon.    

    Spring Break Recap: Wooster competed in a pair of non-scoring meets during spring break, first participating at the Shamrock Invitational (March 16-17), hosted by Coastal Carolina University, where it was amongst a field of primarily NCAA Div. I schools, and then at the Lynchburg Invitational (March 24).
    Triple jumpers Tristan Jordan (Virginia Beach, Va. / Floyd E. Kellam) and Kayla Miller (Mercer, Pa. / Mercer Area) were the only Scots to finish among the top-10 at the highly-competitive Shamrock Invitational. Both placed fourth, with Jordan doing so in the men’s field via a mark of 44 feet, 3.25 inches, and Miller in the women’s division, hitting 34 feet, 4 inches.
    At the Lynchburg Invitational, Wooster had a number of top performances, led by Jeff Jacobs’ (Wilmette, Ill. / New Trier Twp.) individual victory in the 3000-meter steeplechase (11:30.65). He edged out teammate Gabe Topping (Belmont, Mass. / Belmont), who was the runner-up (11:42.58). Other distance events saw the Scots earn success as well, as second-place finishes came in the form of Jeff Dolan (Webster, N.Y. / Webster Thomas) in the 5000 meters (18:08.89) and Bryan Loy (Oxford, Ohio / Talawanda) in the 10,000 (36:01.37).
    Wooster was strong in the triple jump again, too, putting three in the top-five, led by Jordan in second (43 feet, 2.25 inches). Complementing him were Eric Dyer (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) in third (42 feet, 3.25 inches) and Averell Gatton (McLean, Va. / Langley) in fifth (38 feet, 6 inches).
    Rounding out the Scots’ top-five men’s finishers were Rob Kelm’s (Cincinnati, Ohio / Colerain) third-place run in the 400-meter hurdles (59.74) and Matt Jensen’s (Concord, Ohio / ND-CL) fifth-place effort in the 110 hurdles (16.07).
    In women’s action, Wooster’s top individual showing came from Erin Byrne (Methuen, Mass. / Central Catholic), who was the runner-up in the 5000 meters (22:48.52), while Miller had another strong meet again. She was top-five in a pair of events – third in the triple jump (33 feet, 9.5 inches) and fourth in the high jump (4 feet, 11.75 inches).
    Also leading the Scots was Ali Drushal (Lakeville, Ohio / West Holmes), who came in third in both the 400-meter hurdles (1:10.40) and javelin (114 feet, 3 inches).