Wheeling, WV — The Wheeling University track team kicked off its season in early December and had a great day at Youngstown State. They now return in 2022 and are looking for similar success when they take part in the Otterbein Open on Saturday from 11am. This is the first of three January events for the track team as they kick off the indoor season in stride.

They opened the 2021-22 season at the YSU Icebreaker and had 11 different athletes set personal bests in their respective events. However, the biggest event of the day came on the 60 meters when the second Jabez Reeves set the new school record in the event. He finished third overall, with a time of 6.86 seconds in the preliminaries, and finished the final with an impressive 6.92 seconds. It was a strong start to the season for two teams that finished first and second in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) last season.

On the men’s side of the court, Wheeling had five different players who set new personal bests in their respective events. As Reeves set the new school record in the 60 yards, his teammate marquis marable also set a PR, running the event in 7.21 seconds. A few events later, Marable added another PR in the 200-meter Dash, finishing 12th overall with a time of 22.55 seconds. Julien Griffin and Jacob Pielach completed the PRs for Wheeling with Griffin setting his in the 60-meter hurdles (8.14) and Pielach setting his in the 400-meter (49.75).

For the women, they ended the day with six PRs in the day, with their first two coming in the first event of the day. Sophomorea Ka’Niya McGowan and Heaven Jackson each set personal bests in the 60 meters with times of 8.06 and 8.10 seconds respectively. Isha Sesay entered the all-time top 10 in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.16 seconds, and the 400-meter saw two other Cardinals establish PR in Susan Trammel (1:04) and Jenay Sumahro (1: 03) each having a career days.

With 2022 now upon us, the track team is jumping straight into the heat of their indoor track season. They have three different events in January and two meetings in February before the MEC Championships scheduled for February 18-19 in Huntington, West Virginia. With some strong performances already under their belt, the team are looking to continue racking up points in these upcoming events as the men seek revenge for the MEC Championships, while the women are ready to defend their title.

The game

Saturday will be the first time the Cardinals have competed at Otterbein University since Jan. 20, 2014. On that day, the women finished in seventh place while the men finished fifth at the event. The men scored 42 points in their 18 events, while the women scored 43 points in their run. Both teams had two standouts at the event which paved the way for their teams.

On the women’s side, it was the field athletes who shone, while former cardinals Kenya Simmons and Miranda Christner had great days. Simmons through just over 45 inches in the shot put while Christner 45 inches in the shot put. On the men’s side, former Cardinals Jacob Hamilton and Travis Nicholas shone in the pole vault and shot put, respectively. Hamilton had a 14-00 in the pole vault while Nicholas threw 45-07.25 inches in the shot put.

The details

Saturday’s event is due to start at 11 a.m. on the University of Otterbein campus. The field trials will begin at 11 a.m., followed by the field trials at noon.