Columbus East offensive lineman Mark Sciutto has had a lot of success with the Olympians football team, including a 2018 Class 5A state championship, but on Wednesday, he formalized his decision to continue his athletic career by signing with the University of Indianapolis track and field program.
Sciutto, who’s been playing football since the second grade, said he grew tired of playing football and was looking for something new to do. He found something completely new in joining the Greyhounds as a hammer thrower for the outdoor season and weight thrower for indoors.
“I feel pretty good getting kind of a change in what I’ve been doing,” Sciutto said. “I’ve been in athletics my whole life, and just to move on from one thing to the next feels a little awkward, but it feels like the right thing to do.”
Sciutto throws the shot and discus for the East track team, but there is not hammer throw in Indiana high school track. Sciutto has been working with East throwing coach Jonathon Martin on trying to replicate the hammer throwing motion as much as possible.
The Olympians already have one grad in Purdue junior Sarah Loesch, who switched to the hammer throw in college and is doing well for the Boilermakers women’s track and field team.
Purdue actually was Sciutto’s first choice, but after not getting accepted into the school’s engineering program, he landed on UIndy, where he will be majoring in mechanical engineering.
“I was accepted into UIndy and looked into it a little more and just fell in love with their engineering program,” Sciutto said. “It’s brand new, and it just seemed like the right place for me.”
Trine was also on Sciutto’s list of college choices, but UIndy being about an hour away felt much better to him than a four-hour drive to Angola. Now that he has made his decision, Sciutto said he can just focus on graduation, which is a little more than two weeks away.
“It felt good to do this,” Sciuitto said. “It’s fun and exciting, a little nervous. I just have to graduate, and that’s the next step in my chapter.”
