Season Preview: Women’s Track & Field eyeing promising season with roster led by two national qualifiers
By Wes Mayberry
| 2023 Women's Track & Field Schedule |
ADA — The Ohio Northern women's track and field team returns both of its national qualifiers from last season for what the Polar Bears hope is a successful 2023 campaign under 14th-year head coach Jason Maus.
"We're excited to get the season underway," Maus said. "We return a lot of athletes with experience at the conference level, and we're in a position to be competitive at the OAC Championships."
Seniors Tessa Pitcovich (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) and Anna Schatzle (Brookville, Ind./Franklin County) return to the roster for 2023 after competing at national meets last season. Schatzle qualified for both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships in the pole vault, and Pitcovich qualified for the outdoor national meet in the 10,000 meters.
"Anna and Tessa are leaders within their event groups and the team as a whole," Maus said. "We'll lean on them a lot this season to help us continue to be successful."
That duo headlines a list of 24 returning letter winners from last year's team that finished 26-7 during the indoor portion of its schedule and 16-4 in the outdoor season. That marked the program's 11th consecutive winning season indoors and ninth straight winning season outdoors, and the Polar Bears placed third at both the indoor and outdoor Ohio Athletic Conference Championships meets.
Other top performers from last season who return for 2023 include senior Kenzie Detmer (Liberty Center), junior Olivia Ogg (Hebron/Lakewood) and sophomores Olyvia Ashbrook (Johnstown/Northridge), Chloe Gibson (Ostrander/Buckeye Valley) and Toria Ingalls (Tiffin/Columbian), all of whom earned All-OAC honors last season.
Northern also welcomes the addition of 22 freshmen to the 56-woman roster.
The 2023 season opens on Jan. 20 when Northern hosts the Larry Cole Invitational.
Here is a preview of the 2023 ONU women's track and field team, by event groupings.
Jumps
Schatzle headlines the Polar Bears' entries in the jump events and will look to build upon her success from last season, which included the pair of appearances at the NCAA Championships, an OAC championship in the outdoor pole vault and USTFCCCA All-Great Lakes Region accolades in both the indoor and outdoor pole vault. She ranks fifth all-time at ONU with a personal-best of 3.72 meters indoors and fourth all-time with a height of 3.75 meters outdoors.
Ogg is another top returnee as the reigning conference champion in the indoor pole vault. She posted a jump of 3.47 meters to win the title last year and equaled that mark as the runner-up at the OAC Outdoor Championships. Those jumps rank eighth and ninth, respectively, all-time at ONU.
Senior Cienna Kuhn (Elida) and sophomore Jaclyn Boardman (Franklin, Ind./Franklin Community) also rejoin the lineup of pole vaulters. Kuhn placed fourth at the indoor OACs last season, and Boardman was eighth indoors and seventh outdoors.
Detmer, Ingalls and Gibson lead the group in the other jump events as returning All-OAC performers.
Detmer finished third in the triple jump at last year's outdoor OACs.
Gibson was third in the indoor triple jump and scored with sixth- and fourth-place finishes in the outdoor long jump and triple jump, respectively, at the conference meets. She ranks 10th all-time at ONU in the outdoor long jump with a mark of 5.28 meters.
Ingalls placed third in the indoor high jump at last year's OACs and ranks sixth all-time at ONU in the event with a mark of 1.63 meters.
Combined, those seven student-athletes have scored 80.75 OAC Championship points in their careers. That effort is led by Ogg (24), Gibson (15.25) and Schatzle (14.25).
Sophomore Rylie Barrington (Waynesfield/Waynesfield-Goshen) and several freshmen will also look to contribute in the jump events.
"The jumps group has had a lot of success at the conference level, and we'll look to this group to continue to contribute a lot this season," Maus said.
Throws
Sophomores Izzy Burman (Benton Ridge/Liberty Benton), Hannah Friend (Luckey/Eastwood) and Sami Sellers (Van Wert/Lincolnview) are returning letter winners in the throwing events.
Burman was seventh in the shot put and 10th in the weight throw at the OAC Indoor Championships last season and went on to place sixth in the shot put and 12th in the discus throw at the outdoor OACs. She ranks seventh all-time at ONU in the outdoor hammer throw (44.03 meters), eighth all-time in the indoor weight throw (13.68 meters) and outdoor shot put (11.76 meters) and ninth all-time in the indoor shot put (11.49 meters).
Friend placed fifth in the discus throw at last year's outdoor OACs. She also competed in the indoor shot put and outdoor shot put, hammer throw and javelin in the 2022 conference meets. Her mark of 37.76 meters in the outdoor discus throw ranks sixth all-time at ONU, and she ranks eighth all-time in the outdoor hammer throw with a distance of 43.17 meters.
Sellers posted a sixth-place finish in the discus throw at last year's outdoor OACs. She also competed in the indoor shot put and weight throw and outdoor shot put, hammer throw and javelin at last season's OAC meets. Her mark of 40.04 meters in the outdoor discus throw ranks third all-time at ONU.
Sophomore Tarrah BeVier (Johnstown/Northridge) also returns after placing sixth in the javelin and competing in the shot put and hammer throw at last season's outdoor OACs.
"We're excited to see the growth and development in this group," Maus said. "There is a lot of potential in the group, and they've been really committed to putting in the work in the offseason."
Sprints
Ashbrook returns as a reigning All-OAC performer in the outdoor 400-meter hurdles thanks to her third-place finish in the event last season. She also competes in the middle-distance events, placing sixth in the 500 and seventh in the 800 at last year's indoor OACs and running in both the indoor and outdoor 4x400 relays.
Junior Rosie Schroeder (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) returns as a contributor in the hurdle and relay events. At last season's outdoor OACs, she was sixth in the 100 hurdles and eighth in the 400 hurdles. Her top times in the outdoor 100 hurdles (:15.39) and indoor 60 hurdles (:09.64) rank sixth and 10th, respectively, all-time at ONU.
Junior Allie Starner (Wellington) was seventh in the indoor 60 hurdles at last year's OACs and was a member of the outdoor 4x100 relay team. She ranks fifth all-time at ONU in the indoor 60 hurdles (:09.35) and sixth all-time in the indoor 60 meters (:08.07).
Sophomore Kendra Krichbaum (Ashland) posted a ninth-place finish in the 100 meters in the outdoor OACs last season and was a member of the indoor 4x200 and outdoor 4x100 relay teams.
"This group will look to build off of their success from last season," Maus said. "There are some good leaders in this group that can set a great tone in practice."
Distance/Mid-Distance
The highly decorated Pitcovich headlines the Polar Bears' group of distance and middle-distance runners for 2023. She ran a personal-best time of 36:08.18 in the outdoor 10,000 meters last season to rank second all-time at ONU in the event and qualify for the NCAA Championships, where she finished 17th in the 22-woman field.
Pitcovich was an All-OAC performer in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meters and outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 meters last season and was ONU's top point-scorer at both OAC meets. She was an All-Region honoree in the outdoor 10,000, was named the OAC Scholar Athlete of the Month for June and earned Academic All-American Second Team and Academic All-District 7 First Team recognition from College Sports Communicators.
She enters 2023 with plenty of momentum, as she is coming off a cross country season in which she qualified for the NCAA Championships for the third time in her career and earned the NCAA Elite 90 Award for the second straight year.
Senior Taylor Ellerbrock (Columbus Grove) and sophomore Ashley Hockstok (Westerville/Central) also enter the track season coming off All-Region performances in cross country.
In track, Ellerbrock is a two-time All-OAC honoree, and she posted finishes of fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase and sixth in the 5,000 meters at last year's outdoor OACs while also competing in the indoor distance medley relay. She ranks ninth all-time at ONU in both the 3,000 steeplechase (11:38.53) and 5,000 meters (18:07.24) outdoors.
Senior Lexi Neff (Northfield/Walsh Jesuit) and junior J.J. Herron (Miamisburg) also posted top-10 finishes at last year's OAC meets. Neff was seventh in the indoor 1,000 meters, and Herron finished fifth in the outdoor 400 hurdles and seventh in the indoor 500 meters. Herron has earned two All-OAC accolades in her career, one each in the indoor distance medley relay and outdoor 4x800 relay.
Juniors Sydney Goodrich (Romeo, Mich.), Olesya Mertz (Johnstown) and Megan Vapenik (Strongsville) and sophomores Bailey Kreft (Sunbury/Buckeye Valley) and Larkin Warner (Findlay) round out the returning letter winners in this event group.
"This group has had a great fall and has the potential to be major point-scorers for us at the OAC Championships," Maus said.