Grace Finishes Third at NCAA Championships in Shot Put

Albuquerque, NM—Youngstown State senior Bobby Grace was the only athlete from the Horizon League team to compete in the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championship. Grace had an impressive performance against the top in the nation as he ended up finishing in third place behind the nation's leader, Ryan Crouser of Texas, in the shot put and Stephen Mozia of Cornell.

During the indoor season he broke the record for YSU in the shot put as he had a huge throw of 19.62 meters at the YSU Invitational. Grace also broke the Horizon League Indoor Championship meet record as he finished in first place with a toss of 19.13 meters. He ranked 11th in the nation going into the NCAA Championship and was among the other 16 throwers in the event who reached the 19.19 meter mark.

To add on to his remarkable senior year he was also named the Horizon League Athlete of the Year and Most Outstanding Performer. Grace is also just the second penguin to make it to the NCAA Indoor meet next to Kurt Michaelis.

Grace ended his Indoor campaign going out on his best performance ever as his had a heave of 19.90 meters beating his personal best for the year by .28 meters. His throw earned him a top five finish as he placed third beating out senior Mason Finley and junior Brad Szypka who were the other two to finish in the top five. He beat Finley by .09 meters and beat Szypka by .39 meters.

Grace's performance earned the Penguins six points for the meet and gave them a tie for 13th place in the overall standings.

The rest of the Penguins finished up their first outdoor meet this weekend at the Coastal Carolina Invitational. Grace and the rest of the Penguin track and field team will continue the outdoor season in two weeks at the Raleigh Relays on March 28-29 in North Carolina.

(Release courtesy of Youngstown State Athletics)