 "Photo: Ryan Gehrke/The Spectator")
The Edinboro women’s team had several strong performances at the 2010 PSAC Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday and Sunday. Tina Yi led the way earning All-PSAC honors with a third place finish in the 5000-meter run. Her time was good enough for NCAA provisional qualifying. Danielle Cerroni finished tenth in that same race. Yi also earned a fifth place finish in the 3,000-meter run.
Stephanie Smigiera finished in ninth in the indoor pentathlon with 3,010 points. Hannah Kucewicz was fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:18.
The Lock Haven men and Shippensburg women captured the team titles. Edinboro hosted the event for the first time in the Mike S. Zafirovski Sports & Recreation Dome.
The Lock Haven men won the title, their first since 2007 and fifth overall, by the narrowest margin in championship history, 135-134.50 over East Stroudsburg. Shippensburg’s women’s team snapped Slippery Rock’s three-year stranglehold on the championship title with a 173.25-154.50 victory over the Rock. This the Red Raiders’ first team championship.
After failing to win any events on the first day of competition and tied for first with Shippensburg, Lock Haven’s men’s team bounced back to win two on Sunday and had eight competitors place in the top three of an event. The Shippensburg women trailed Slippery Rock by 19 points after Saturday’s schedule of events. The Red Raiders responded by winning four events Sunday, including two victories for runner Neely Spence. The female track and overall athlete of the meet, Spence won the 5,000-meter run and ran the anchor leg of Shippensburg’s winning 4,000-meter distance relay team on Saturday. She followed up that performance by winning the one-mile and 3,000-meter runs on Sunday.
Briana Liebold, Indiana(Pa.) won the triple jump Sunday and finished second in the long jump en route to being named the female field athlete of the meet. She earned NCAA automatic qualifying marks in both events.
East Stroudsburg’s Chris Reddick was named the male track and overall athlete of the meet after finishing second in the 400-meter dash and winning the 200-meter dash on Sunday. Reddick set a record in the 200 and earned automatic NCAA qualifying marks in both events.
Shippensburg’s Don Graybill, the male field athlete of the meet, won the pole vault portion of the heptathlon Sunday and defended his title in the event with 5,092 points.
Men
After capturing the 35-pound weight throw with a conference meet record on Saturday, East Stroudsburg’s Paul Wagner earned his second title with a victory Sunday in the shot put, where he posted an NCAA provisional distance of 15.98 meters. In the heptathlon, Graybill trailed after Saturday’s events, but he won the pole vault Sunday and defended his title with 5,092 points.
Lock Haven’s Nick Hilton gave the Bald Eagles their first victory and set a PSAC record in the mile run with a time of 4:08.78, nearly two seconds in front of Shippensburg’s Edward Buck. Hilton also finished second in the 3,000 meter run to Shippensburg’s Sean Stetler, who set a PSAC record with a time of 8:25.84. Brice Myers, of California (Pa.) came into this weekend with the fourth-fastest national time in the 60-meter hurdles, and he won the event with a time of 8.04, an automatic NCAA qualifying time.
In the 400-meter dash, Indiana (Pa.)’s Kevin Raymond set a PSAC record with a time of 48.02, an NCAA automatic qualifying time. Reddick and Negus Graham, who finished second and third, respectively, also earned automatic qualifying times. Lock Haven’s Greg Mock won the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.82, an NCAA provisional time. Reddick set a PSAC record and earned an automatic NCAA qualifying mark in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.24.
Drew Miller, of East Stroudsburg, defended his title in the triple jump with a mark of 15.28 meters, an automatic NCAA qualifying distance. Slippery Rock’s Phil Rector, who has a top 10 time in the 800-meter run, won the event Sunday in a close race, finishing with a time of 1:55.25. In the high jump, Sean Gentry, of Kutztown, earned first place and a provisional mark of 2.10 meters in an upset of Indiana (Pa.)’s Leander Toney, who entered the event with the sixth-best national distance.
East Stroudsburg closed out the event by setting a PSAC record with a time of 3:16.39 in the 4x400 meter relay.
Women
Spence got off to an outstanding start Saturday with victories in the 5,000 meter run and as a the anchor leg on the Red Raiders’ winning 4,000 meter distance relay team. She maintained that momentum Sunday with a victory in the one-mile run, which she entered with the fourth-fastest national time.
She finished with a time of 4:58.45, just two one-hundredths of a second in front of teammate Mary Dell. Spence and Dell, along with teammate and third-place finisher Abigail Huber, all earned NCAA provisional times. Later in the 3,000 meter run, Spence routed the competition by more than eight seconds, finishing first in 9:37.92.
Slippery Rock’s Tiffany Tedesco won two individual events. In an upset in the 60-meter dash, Indiana (Pa.)’s Tamika Taylor, who has a top 10 national time in the event, fell by one one-hundredth of a second to Tedesco, who won the race with a time of 7.76. Tedesco later won and earned a provisional mark in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.02.
In the 60-meter hurdles, which were contested for the first time, East Stroudsburg’s Lauren Ventrella won the event and earned an NCAA provisional time with a mark of 8.94. Slippery Rock teammates Amanda Segworth and Allison Smith finished second and third, respectively, and also earned NCAA provisional times.
Erica Hess of Shippensburg broke a PSAC record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.42, less than a second in front of East Stroudsburg’s Jasmine Johnson. Liebold earned an NCAA automatic qualifying time and set a PSAC record in the triple jump with a mark of 12.13 meters.
In the shot put, Kutztown’s April Doyle outpaced Slippery Rock’s Rachel Weber, as well as teammate and defending champion Ashley Pinter, with a distance of 13.15 meters.
East Stroudsburg’s Lynn Mayer, who posted the seventh-best national mark in the high jump this season, continued her strong season by winning the event Sunday with a height of 1.70 meters. Shippensburg’s Amanda Radabaugh earned an NCAA provisional time by winning the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.74.
In the final event of the day, Slippery Rock earned an NCAA provisional time and finished first in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 3:54.87.
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