Three in a Row for The Rock Women
INDIANA, Pa. -- The Rock ran away from the competition and claimed a third straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference team title Saturday at IUP’s Miller Stadium.
SRU outscored second-place Lock Haven by a 203.45 to 111 margin in the team standings. Shippensburg finished third with 107.5 points.
Slippery Rock now has a PSAC-best 14 outdoor titles in women’s track and field dating back to the first championship in 1979. It was the fifth won by SRU in the last six PSAC seasons, the sixth in the last eight seasons and 10th since John Papa assumed The Rock head coaching reins in 1986.
With this year's outdoor team title, SRU has now won or shared each of the last five track and field crowns awarded by the PSAC. In addition to its three straight outdoor titles, The Rock won a first-ever indoor team championship in 2007 and shared the top honor this winter.
Six first-place finished paced The Rock's championship effort this weekend.
All-America performer Jennifer Hansen won the pole vault competition and placed third in the long jump to earn the meet's Outstanding Field Athlete honor.
Her winning height of 13 feet, 3.75 inches in the pole vault established a PSAC Championship meet record and further solidified her automatic berth in the NCAA Division II Championship competition later this month in Los Angeles. Hansen also garnered a third-place showing in the long jump with a leap of 17-2.75.
Sprinters Lacey Cochran and Tiffany Tedesco each ran a leg of two winning relays. They helped the 400m relay team to a 47.26 time and paced the 1600m relay team to a 3:50.7 time. Both of those times are good for provisional berths in the national championships.
Tina Beggs and Emily Bush rounded out the 400m relay team, while Amanda Seigworth and Allison Smith completed the 1600m unit.
Cochran also set a school record and met NCAA provisional qualifying standards with a second-place time of 55.97 om tje 400m dash and was the conference runner-up in the 200m dash with a time of 25.13.
Tedesco was the conference runner-up in the 100m dash with a time of 12.30 and placed third in the 200m dash with a time of 25.45.
Beggs and Bush placed third and fourth, respectively, in the 100m dash with times of 12.41 and 12.56 to give SRU a 2-3-4 finish in the event.
Seigworth also earned conference runner-up honors in the 400m hurdles race with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:01.88 and finished fourth in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.10.
Smith, meanwhile, was third in the 400m hurdles with a provisional qualifying time of 1:01.89 and placed fifth in the 100m hurdles with a 15.25 time.
The Rock also got first-place efforts from Jen Harpp in the 5,000m run (17:41.13), Whitney Hendershot in the high jump (5-8) and Raissa Weiss in the 3,000m steeplechase. All three of those performances earned The Rock student-athlete a provisional berth in national competition.
Harpp later added a fourth-place finish (10:26.10) in the 3,000m run.
Serena Bond claimed conference runner-up honors in the triple jump with a leap of 37-5.75.
Abby McKissick and Sarah Reppermund placed third and fourth, respectively, in the pole vault competition won by Hansen. Both McKissick and Reppermund cleared 10-11.75.
Nicole Blaesser finished third in the 10,000m run with a school-record time of 36:55.26.
The award for overall and track MVP was shared by West Chester’s Danielle Scardino and Millersville’s Priscilla Jennings. Scardino won individual gold in the 100m hurdles (14.35), 100m dash (12.12) and 200m dash (25.07). Jennings was also a triple winner, claiming the top spot in the 800m (2:10.22), 1500m (4:40.08) and the 3,000m (10:19.13).
Slippery Rock’s men’s team completed the Championship sweep for the school. For more information on the men’s championship, click HERE.