Waynesburg Athletics Waynesburg University continued their streak of meets up in Northern PA, this time, taking a group to the Mercer County for the Westminster Invitational. Despite the team having gone on Saturday, the second day of the meet, it was day one that saw yet another WU athlete have the performance of the day.
Garrett Hillard, a junior out of Greenville, PA notched a distance of 38.73 meters for the hammer throw, which not only allowed him to take first in the meet for the event, but set a new school record for said event that he already held prior to the meet, and is now second all time in the PAC.
For Hillard, despite the fact that the PAC does not have hammer throw for the outdoor season, he is still pursuing it as a means to propel his other events.
“So, in the PAC, we do not throw the hammer, but we throw weight, which is like a hammer, just a heavier and smaller implement,” Hillard said, noting how he is still chasing said conference record, “Breaking the school record for hammer allows me to keep practicing my footwork to break the weight toss record when the indoor season comes around next year. I am only 0.16 meters away from breaking that record.”
For Head Coach Chris Hardie, he makes similar notes as Hillard, pointing out specifically that despite the success in the event, this is not an event that he regularly trains for.
“Garrett really worked for that one. It’s a special honor for him because its an event he doesn’t train for very often, and we never know what to expect on meet day,” Hardie said, “But he is so strong, and his technique is pretty good, so he earned it.”
To go along with Hillard, graduate student Quinton Weaver, who has broken multiple school records across the indoor and outdoor seasons himself, also brough home a first-place notch, this one being his performance in the 1500 meter with a time of 4:09.60, while also placing third in the 800.
Despite such mileage on his legs across the school year, Hardie remains confident in his athlete’s continued endurance.
“He is able to handle the workload because he takes care of the little things like sleep, diet and hydration,” Hardie said, while also noting how he and fellow grad-student, Andrew Kasper, go out of their way to get more reps in during each practice, “Andrew and Quintin do something I call ‘extra credit’ as well. I make sure to squeeze in an additional 2-3 repeats at the end of tough workouts so that they learn to physically and mentally fight through even when the body is telling them it’s tired and sore.”
As for the rest of the team, the 110-meter hurdles saw Ty Williams notching seventh place with a time of 15.53 and breaking his own record in the event. The other track athletes to place is Kyle Casella in the 400 meter dash with a time of 59.12 and a eighth place finish, as well as the men’s 4×400 relay taking seventh with a time of 3:35.92.
As for the field, Adam Helbling took 11th in the triple jump with a distance of 11.97 meters, Jacob Harker took nineth in shot put with a throw of 14.01 meters and John Stewart took nineth as well in discus with a throw of 40 meters.
Men’s T&F have one meet remaining prior to their conference championship meet, with this being another trip to WVU for the Mountaineer Twilight Invitational. For this meet, the men’s team will be taking Hillard, Harker, Williams, Weaver, Kai Herbert and Isaiah Matthews, with the latter two set to return following battles with some injuries.