Season Review: National qualifiers Schatzle, Pitcovich highlight successful 2022 season for Women’s Track and Field

By Wes Mayberry

ADA — The 2022 season marked yet another successful year for the Ohio Northern women's track and field team under 13th-year head coach Jason Maus.

The Polar Bears finished 26-7 overall and in third place at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships during the indoor portion of their schedule and went on to post a 16-4 record and third-place OAC finish in the outdoor season. This marked the program's 11th consecutive winning season indoors and ninth straight winning season outdoors, and the squad was represented at both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division III Championships meets.

"We had a good season," Maus said. "There were some freshmen that made an impact, especially indoors, which helped springboard us into the outdoor season. In the outdoor conference championships, we had some upperclassmen really step up with some great performances. It was a total team effort across the entire length of the season."

Junior Anna Schatzle (Brookville, Ind./Franklin County) qualified for the NCAA Championships in the pole vault at the end of both the indoor and outdoor seasons. She cleared a height of 3.72 meters in the indoor pole vault at the Polar Bear Final Qualifier on March 4 to rank fifth all-time at ONU and entered the national meet as the No. 19 seed. She went on to post the fourth-best mark in program history in the outdoor pole vault with a height of 3.75 meters at the St. Francis (Ill.) Fighting Chance Invitational on May 14 to qualify as the No. 19 seed at the national meet.

Schatzle no-heighted at the indoor nationals in Winston-Salem, N.C., but rebounded to clear 3.60 meters and place 20th of 22 competitors at the outdoor nationals in Geneva, Ohio. She was the OAC champion in the outdoor pole vault and a USTFCCCA All-Great Lakes Region selection in the indoor and outdoor pole vault this season.

"Anna had a great season," Maus said. "She elevated her level of competition, and she battled through some ups and downs. The indoor conference meet and indoor national meet weren't great, but she showed great resilience to bounce back and win the conference championship outdoors and qualify for the outdoor national meet. That speaks to her commitment level and approach to her event."

Senior Tessa Pitcovich (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) joined Schatzle in qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships this season, posting a personal-best time of 36:08.18 in the 10,000 meters at the OAC Championships meet on May 5. That time ranks second all-time at ONU and earned her a trip to Geneva, where she was the No. 22 seed in the 22-woman field. She ended up placing 17th, running a time of 37:24.44.

Pitcovich was a USTFCCCA All-Great Lakes Region selection in the outdoor 10,000 meters and earned four All-OAC honors this season as a top-three finisher in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meters and the outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 meters. A two-time national qualifier in cross country, Pitcovich was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 First Team and Academic All-America Second Team for cross country and track and field and earned the OAC Scholar-Athlete of the Month accolade for June.

"Tessa had a great season across the board," Maus said. "She steadily improved each week and really elevated her game in track and field. She's been really competitive in cross country, and the track season she had this year was tremendous."

Other standouts this season included seniors Kayla Silva (Westerville/South) and Mackenzie Detmer (Liberty Center); sophomores Olivia Ogg (Hebron/Lakewood) and Natalie Garrett (Columbus/Bishop Watterson); and freshmen Olyvia Ashbrook (Johnstown/Northridge), Chloe Gibson (Ostrander/Buckeye Valley) and Toria Ingalls (Tiffin/Columbian).

Silva earned All-OAC and All-Great Lakes Region honors in the indoor 60 meters, and Detmer was All-Conference in the outdoor triple jump.

"Mackenzie was tremendous at the conference meet. It was really cool to see all of her hard work pay off," Maus said. "There were lots of moments throughout the season that you look back and reflect on and think, 'Those were really cool moments.'"

Ogg cleared a height of 3.47 meters to win the OAC championship in the indoor pole vault and posted an All-Conference second-place finish in the event at the outdoor OACs.

Garrett was named OAC Field Athlete of the Week on Feb. 21 after winning the weight throw with a mark of 15.39 meters at the Wittenberg Invitational during the indoor season. That distance broke the facility record of 14.67 meters and ranks fourth all-time at ONU.

Ashbrook, Gibson and Ingalls rounded out the group as All-OAC performers in the outdoor 400-meter hurdles, indoor triple jump and indoor high jump, respectively.

Northern was just as impressive in the classroom, as eight Polar Bears earned Academic All-OAC recognition. That group included Pitcovich, Schatzle, Ogg, seniors Taylor Ellerbrock (Columbus Grove) and Rue Whitmore (Mason), junior Cienna Kuhn (Elida) and sophomores Oleysa Mertz (Johnstown) and Rosie Schroeder (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley). Pitcovich, Ellerbrock and Whitmore each earned the honor for the third time in their careers, and Schatzle and Kuhn are two-time honorees.

With a team GPA of 3.37, Northern also earned a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award, and Pitcovich, Schatzle, Ogg and Ingalls were USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete selections.

On the program's all-time leaderboards, Pitcovich and Silva closed out their senior seasons holding a combined nine top-three marks.

In addition to her second-best all-time mark in the outdoor 10,000 meters, Pitcovich ranks second at ONU in the outdoor 5,000 meters (17:37.72) and third in both the indoor 3,000 meters (10:14.14) and 5,000 meters (17:36.37).

Silva set a new school record of :07.82 in the indoor 60 meters this season and owns school records in the outdoor 100 meters (:12.25) and 200 meters (:25.45). She also ranks second in program history with her top marks in the indoor 55 meters (:07.29) and 200 meters (:26.06).

Freshman Sami Sellers (Van Wert/Lincolnview) also put herself among the top of the program's all-time leaderboard in the outdoor discus throw this season, as her mark of 11.11 meters at the Mount Union Last Chance meet ranks third in program history.

As a team, the Polar Bears' 2022 schedule was highlighted by their first-place finishes in the Larry Cole Friday Night Invitational and the Joe Banks Invitational home meets during the indoor season. They recorded 87 points at the indoor OACs and 105.5 points at the outdoor OACs.

"This program has been really good about stepping up and being really competitive and coming together for the conference meets. That's a testament to the kids and coaching staff working together to put things together at the right times," Maus said. "There is a lot of pride and emotion that goes into the conference meets with representing Ohio Northern on a really competitive stage, and this program does a good job of representing our university at the conference, regional and national levels. I don't think we could have asked for much better this year."

The Polar Bears will look to build off of this year's performances as they head into the 2023 season.

"We return quite a bit of our roster, and we have what we hope to be some contributing pieces coming in as freshmen," Maus said. "We're excited about where we're at, and having a big core group back will hopefully continue our momentum into next season."