Former Gateway, Oakland Catholic standout Macey Crawford finds success with WVU track

Former Gateway student-athlete Macey Crawford made strides this spring on the women’s track and field team at West Virginia as she continued to make a comeback from leg issues which kept her from competing for nearly a year.

Crawford, a 2020 Oakland Catholic graduate, competed as a true freshman two years ago and set a collegiate personal best of 1 minute, 5.11 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to win the event at the WVU Last Chance Meet.

She also won the 400 hurdles at the Robert Morris Invitational.

Crawford hoped to come back strong in the 2022 indoor season, but shin splints which led to a shin fracture caused her to miss the entire outdoor season as well as the indoor season this past winter.

A hurdles specialist who also competes in the 200 and 400 sprints at WVU, Crawford returned to competition this spring.

She ran a time of 1:6.18 in the 400 hurdles to finish second in the event at the WVU Last Chance Meet May 6.

The time was an improvement of more than three seconds from her previous 400 hurdles run at the George Mason Ebanks Invitational on April 8.

Crawford’s mother and former coach, Jackie Smith, said Crawford is excited to continue training with hopes of seeing bigger things next season.

Crawford made a name for herself early in her high school career as she set the Gateway outdoor school record in the 100 hurdles as a freshman in 2017 with a time of 15.27 seconds at the Baldwin Invitational.

She joined older sister Aiyanna Crawford (400, 800) and older brother Montae Nicholson (110 hurdles, long jump, 400 meter relay) in the Gateway track and field record books.

Crawford then transferred to Oakland Catholic as a sophomore in 2018, and she placed fifth in the 100 hurdles (15.05) and second in the 300 hurdles (45.09) at the WPIAL Class 3A championships.

That summer, competing for the Next Level Athletics track club, she set her all-time best in the 400 hurdles — a winning mark of 1:03 — at the USATF Region 2 Championships in New Jersey. She was selected the USATF Three Rivers Association Female Youth Athlete of the Year.

Crawford, like many other athletes in the WPIAL at the time, wasn’t able to compete as a high school senior in 2020 when the growing coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of the spring high school seasons.

Kayla Gratton

Gateway graduate Kayla Gratton was named to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference second team at shortstop as conference officials released the all-star selections May 9.

A 2022 honorable-mention pick, Gratton found herself in Waynesburg’s top five for batting average (.394), on-base percentage (.434) and hits (28) through the PAC championship tournament.

Gratton helped the Yellow Jackets (29-8) win the PAC tournament championship May 6 with a 6-3 victory over Westminster College.

Waynesburg played Westminster twice to determine the champion. In the title game and the contest with the Titans leading up to the championship clash, Gratton went a combined 5 for 7 with two runs scored. She raised her season average 35 points in those two games.

The Yellow Jackets, PAC champs for the second year in a row, earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and were expected to learn Monday who they will face in the first round.

The tournament gets started Friday.

Caleb Lehman

The Gateway graduate and Chatham grad student shined in a recent PAC doubleheader against Grove City.

In the split with the Wolverines, Lehman collected three hits in eight plate appearances and knocked in four runs.

His efforts were particularly noticeable in the Game 2 victory as he went 2 for 5 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored as the Cougars collected a 9-5 victory.

Lehman, who is working toward a doctorate in physical therapy, batted .282 this season with 27 RBIs, 25 runs scored, 11 doubles, two triples and a home run.

A collegiate starter right out of the gate in 2019, Lehman capped his five seasons at Chatham, which included the 2020 campaign shortened to 12 contests, with a .339 average (173 hits in 511 at-bats) in 144 games played (143 starts). He totaled 94 RBIs and 101 runs scored to go along with 36 doubles, 15 triples and six home runs.