Swogger breaks 34 year old record in 400-meter dash at Bellwood Invitational
Tyrone’s James Oliver and Erika Voyzey, as well as the boys and girls 400 relay teams also won gold.
Tyrone’s senior track star Jordyn Swogger made history on Monday at the 58th annual Bellwood Invitational by beating the 400-meter dash record set back in 1980. It was the oldest standing record at the Bellwood Invitational.
Swogger ran a time of 59.32 seconds, just a hundredth of a second off her personal record. This made her the first girl in meet history to break the one minute mark at the Bellwood Invitational.
“I had no idea I was even close [to being under a minute]. I was like, in the conditions, how did I run that fast?” Swogger told the Altoona Mirror after the meet.
I had no idea…how did I run that fast?
— Senior Jordyn Swogger
Tyrone Head Coach Chris Shedd was very pleased with Swogger’s performance.
“I find it fitting that Jordyn accomplished this record in that she has been a dominant runner in this area over her varsity career. Now, at least for a little while, people reading the Bellwood Invitational program each year will be reminded of Jordyn and her tremendous competitive spirit. It is a further honor for our team that now both the boy’s (Nick Patton) and girl’s 400 meter records are held by Tyrone athletes,” said Shedd.
Swogger didn’t expect to do well at Monday’s meet due to the weather conditions and her health. Swogger has been experiencing dizzy spells, dehydration and low iron levels lately. She thought she had them handled, but after running the 400-meter she experienced them again, forcing her to drop out of the 1600 relay.
However, Swogger did join Lexi Patton, Michaela Diehl and Erica Voyzey winning the 400 meter relay with 52.96 and she took second in the 200-meter dash with a 27.03.
A total of twenty schools competed in one of the biggest fields in years. Tyrone girls took 4th with score of 54 and boys took 7th with a score of 32.
Girls
Sophomore Erika Voyzey won the high jump at 5-2 and took fourth in the long jump with a score of 14-7.
Sophomore Jordan Wiser took third in both the 800-meter with 2:35.38 and the 1600-meter with 5:43.43.
Boys
Senior James Oliver triumphed in the 100 dash with 11.43 and joined Connor Harper, Cameron Bakhsheshe and Duane Boone to take first in the 400 relay with a time of 46.20.
Junior Cameron Bakhsheshe took sixth in the 100-meter dash with 11.91 and fourth in the 200-meter dash with 24.30.
The 1600 relay team took fourth with 3:43.91 and sixth with 9:20.91 in the 3200 relay.
Freshman Cullen Raftery finished fourth in the triple jump with 39-11 ¼.
My name's Carly Crofcheck. I've been in the Tyrone Eagle Eye for four years and I'm a Senior at TAHS. Last year I was the Editor in Chief, this year...
