Freeport graduate Isaac Wetzel, seen here during his victory in the 300-meter hurdles at the WPIAL Class 2A track and field championship meet in 2023, has transferred from the University of North Carolina Asheville, where he was playing soccer, to Duquesne University. He will compete in hurdle events for the Dukes. Eagle File Photo

Isaac Wetzel was hoping to get back on the track. Duquesne University provided the opportunity to do so.

A 2023 graduate of Freeport Area High School, Wetzel believed his collegiate athletic career would be spent on the soccer field at the University of North Carolina Asheville, where he had accepted an athletic scholarship to play forward for the Bulldogs.

“With as little playing time as I was going to get, the coach decided to red-shirt me and I was fine with that,” said Wetzel. “I trained with the team the whole season and wanted to see if I could run track as well. The soccer coach and track coach were OK with it, but between my classes and practices, it just wasn’t going to fit into my schedule.

“The soccer field was right next to the track, and last spring I’d look at the track every day thinking about the hurdles.”

Wetzel had turned in a solid season on the track as a junior at Freeport in 2022, but it was during his senior year when he blossomed, winning a WPIAL Class 2A title in the 300-meter hurdles and missing out on a state title by just six-hundredths of a second with a school-record time of 38.25 seconds.

“I had already committed to play soccer at Asheville by that point,” he said. “I’m passionate about soccer, but started thinking in the spring about transferring and just focusing on track.”

Matt DeMatteo, a Hampton High School grad and friend of Wetzel’s who had previously competed at Duquesne, got him seriously thinking about coming north.

Then the transfer portal opened May 1.

“I heard from Isaac that day,” said Brian Reed, hurdles coach for the Dukes and a Karns City product. “I had actually reached out to him during his senior year of high school but never heard back.

“We already had a strong group of hurdlers coming in for next spring and are excited about adding him to that list. He ran 38-low in the 300s in high school, and we’ve had guys who’ve been successful for us after coming in with similar times. The Atlantic 10 Conference is very solid, but we’ve done well.”

Going to school 30 minutes from his family sweetened the pot for Wetzel, who will receive scholarship money at Duquesne.

“I have a very close relationship with my mother,” he said. “I wanted to be closer to home, and that was a huge part of my decision.”

Wetzel, a biology major, will have some adjustments to make as he prepares for collegiate track.

“In the 110s, the hurdles are a few inches higher in college and instead of the 300, it will be the 400,” he said. “I believe I will be able to adjust quickly.”