Freshman Janine Powis continued her outstanding season Saturday, winning the mile with an NCAA qualifying time of 5:01.00 at the NCAA Division II Team Challenge in Geneva, Ohio.
The women’s indoor track and field record in the indoor mile is 5:01.25, held by Gretchen Petcher in 1993. Due to a time conversion because of track size, Powis’ time is not considered a school-record.
Overall, the women’s team placed sixth with 42.60 points. Ashland won the meet with 79.60 points.
Slippery Rock had five athletes finish in the top-10 for the pole vault. Junior Angela Schroeder placed third, clearing 3.52 meters, while also improving her previous NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 3.0 meters. Senior Kelly Fischer cleared 3.37 meters to finish in fifth place. Sophomore Julia Cain came in sixth with a mark of 3.22 meters. Junior Emily Vaughn and freshman Keriann Hill both cleared 3.07 meters to finish seventh and eighth.
Junior Stephanie Case ran her career-best in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17:45.51 to come in fourth place.
Senior Kara Styles took 11.05 seconds off of her career-best time in the 3,000-meter run to earn fifth place with a time of 10:24.52.
“The key for me is to go into each race with a lot of confidence and to just really trust my training. Couch Papa does a great job in preparing us to race,” Styles said.
Sophomore Dilshani Madawala had two top-10 finishes. Madawala placed fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 10.88 meters and eighth in the high jump with 1.53 meters.
Freshman Katelyn Wetzel placed 8th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8:02 seconds. She also placed 10th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26:31 seconds.
The Rock’s men’s team finished 12th at the meet with 21 points, posting 11 top-10 finishes. Ashland won the meet with 100 points.
In the pole vault, junior Cameron Daugherty cleared 4.73 meters and finished third. Sophomore David Caldwell placed eighth in the event with a clearance of 4.28 meters.
Sophomore Travis Arrigoni led the Rock in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:07.93, earning sixth place. Junior AlexKoksal came in ninth place with a time of 15:22.56 and junior Eric Geddis came in 12th place at 15:41.33.
Senior Dan Hedglin placed sixth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.38 seconds.
“I felt that the team’s performance overall was pretty solid. We still have some work to do before the PSACchampionships, but we are training hard and doing everything right to be at our best for the championships,” Hedglinsaid.
Junior DJ Chisom placed 10th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.09 seconds.
The Rock’s 4×400-meter relay team of freshman Hunter Williams, junior Kevin Jewel, junior Trevor Foley, and seniorVanere Maynard came in seventh place with a time of 3:20.65.
Juniors Joseph Kelly and Kyle Toms placed eighth and ninth in the weight throw. Kelly threw for 15.52 meters, while Toms threw for 15.19 meters.
Slippery Rock prepares to compete in two meets this weekend.
Some athletes will head to the Baldwin Wallace Invitational today and others will attend the Akron Invitational on tomorrow.
