Junior Grace Tennant and sophomore Gabrielle Bailey finished in first and second place in the shot put event at the Youngstown Invitational Friday. It was the best rankings in the event for the Kent State women’s track and field match against schools like Ashland, Slippery Rock and West Virginia University. 

Last season Tennant was named to American All-Mid American Conference team, while her best shot put throw was in 2018 with a time of 49 seconds and a distance of 9 inches.

The team was also successful in the 400m dash. Sophomore Ruby Greenwood ran a time of 58.23 seconds during her first heat. She was the only Flash to compete at that event. 

Those two events were the only competitions where the Flashes ranked in the top five. Junior Christy Nell finished in seventh place for the pole vault event with a distance of 3.65 meters. Junior Samantha Ice joined her, ranking at number 11 and finishing with a distance of 3.35 meters. 

Kent State struggled in both the long jump and the one mile race. In these two events the Flashes had their lowest finishes. Freshman Jayda Singleton and junior Desiree Thomas finished back to back 17th- and 18th-place for the long jump event. 

Three Flashes competed in the one mile event: Paige Yoder, Nicole Dicicco and Hanna Kunzler. Out of the 89 participants, Yoder finished 37th, Dicicco 49th and Kunzler 81st.

Kent State’s next meet will be Friday, Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. at the Akron Dual.

Contact Amanda Levine at [email protected].