From March 19, 2022

Last year, the Waynesburg University Women’s and Men’s Outdoor Track and Field teams ended their seasons at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships at Mylan Park in West Virginia. 

Fast forward 11 months, the teams opened up their outdoor season at the same venue they ended at last year to compete in the Stan Romanoski Open.

“I was really excited this entire week for everybody,” Waynesburg head coach Chris Hardie said. “It’s a great feeling [returning to the outdoor season]. I think the energy was here from everyone, which was pretty cool.”

There was no reported team scoring at the event. 

Waynesburg faced off against some high-caliber teams from all divisions, such as The University of Pittsburgh, The University of Akron, and West Virginia University.

“Overall, it was great to see a lot of these teams,” Hardie said. “We were looking at it as an opportunity to kind of extend practice going into the weekend, so we didn’t put a lot of emphasis into how people did today. It was more or less just [getting] the work in, working on preparation and kind of seeing how you stack up.”

Despite facing tough competition, some Waynesburg athletes from both teams had solid days.

Michaela Rose built off of her incredible indoor season with third and fourth-place finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

“Rose ran really well on the ladies’ side,” Hardie said.

Rebecca Dolce put together a valiant effort in two different events, finishing fifth in the discus throw and sixth in the shot put.

The throwers, like Dolce, all together were an area that Hardie saw as a highlight.

“The throwers did pretty well all across the board,” Hardie said. “Becca Dolce did really well.”

Andrew Kasper distanced his way from the competition, placing fifth in the 5000-meter run and ninth in the 3000-meter run.

“Kasper had a pretty good day,” Hardie said.

Moving over to the sprinters, the men’s 4×100 meter relay team, with only sophomores and a freshman, finished second besting other division two and three teams.

Kai Herbert sped past his opposition, finishing third in the 110-meter hurdles.

“Overall, it was a pretty good day,” Hardie said.

Both the men’s and women’s teams compete in the Bethany Invitational this upcoming Saturday.

Full results of the meet can be found here: https://ncwvtf.com/Meets/Track2022/03-19-22Mylan/