Slippery Rock’s indoor track and field team competed at the Kent State Tune-Up Saturday and came home with high confidence and two school records broken.
The men’s 4×400 meter relay team made up of junior Ethan Geisler, sophomore Trevor Foley, junior Kevin Jewel and freshman Hunter Williams ran a time of 3:17.94 to place third. The previous record of 3:20.60 was set by Auntiko Cook, Tom Wise, Ryan Salem and Devin Crosby in 1995. This time also met NCAA qualifying standards, as well as being the third fastest time in the PSAC this season.
“I feel honored to be part of the record breaking team,” Geisler said. “We feel great going into this weekend. Our plans are to win a PSAC Championship as a team and to break the 4×4 record again, no matter who’s on the relay.”
Geisler placed 13th in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.70 seconds.
Williams ran the 200-meter dash at a time of 22.45 seconds, which placed him in seventh.
Junior Cameron Daugherty cleared 4.85 meters to place second in the pole vault.
Sophomore David Caldwell placed eighth in the pole vault clearing 4.40 meters.
In the 400-meter dash, freshman Monte Chapman ran a time of 50.66 seconds, his fastest of the season, to place 14th.
Sophomore Nathaniel Heifferich ran his personal best time of 51.04 seconds to place 17th in the 400.
For the women’s team, senior thrower Sandy Kakraba broke the school record in the weight throw, hitting a mark of 15.41 meters.
The previous record was set in 2010 by Rachel Weber, who threw for 15.29 meters. Kakraba earned 10th place in the event.
“It felt so great to accomplish my goal of breaking the school record my senior year,” Kakraba said.
It was great to know that all my hard work and dedication into track and field paid off this year. This wouldn’t have been possible without my coach or my teammates.”
Senior Kim Stitt took second place in the triple jump with a mark of 11.18 meters.
Stitt also had her season’s best throw of 12.65 meters in the shot put to earn a ninth place finish.
In the pole vault, junior Angela Schroeder cleared 3.54 meters to finish sixth place in the seeded event.
In the unseeded event, freshman Keriann Hill cleared 3.09 meters to take second place.
Senior Kara Styles placed second in the mile run with a season-best time of 5:12.75.
Sophomore Jamie Rylands and freshman Amelia Wren both placed in the top ten in the high jump, both clearing 1.55 meters.
The Rock heads to Edinboro, PA this weekend in hopes of claiming conference titles at the PSAC Championship.
Chapman expects the team to do very well this weekend at PSACs.
“I think that the team will do very well this weekend,” Chapman said. “We have several individuals that are ranked pretty high on the PSAC Performance list. This season we have had several records broken so I expect to see these people perform exceptionally well.”
