On Friday, 12 members of the Slippery Rock University’s women’s indoor track and field team participated in the Grand Valley Big Meet at Grand Valley State University, recording 12 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) qualifying marks and two NCAA provisional marks in their second-to-last meet before the PSAC Championships.
Leading the way for The Rock was senior Kennedy Evans who recorded one of the NCAA provisional marks in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.76, improving on her earlier time of 8.79 set back in December at the YSU Icebreaker. Evans also recorded a PSAC qualifying mark in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.57 seconds.
Rock head coach John Papa shared his thoughts on Evans, saying, “She’s been working really hard over the years and has been getting better and better every year because of her workouts and her commitment to the team. She’s very excited about her goals and we’re very excited about what she’s been doing. She’s a good role model for the other ladies on the team.”
Evans also anchored in the 4×400-meter relay team, which consisted of freshman Emily Horstman, junior Aerial Dukes and junior Katie Teed. The team recorded a time of 3:52.64, which just barely missed the SRU record of 3:51.97. Horstman also recorded a mark in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.81 seconds.
Recording marks behind Evans in the 60-meter hurdles were senior Jenna Bracken with a time of 9.14 seconds and junior Sophie Mazza with a time of 9.24 seconds.
In the mile, junior Melissa Rains recorded a PSAC mark with a time of 5:20.78 and in the shot put, junior Anna Frengel recorded a mark with a distance of 12.77 meters.
The second NCAA provisional mark was recorded by junior Courtney McQuaide, who missed all of the 2015-2016 season with an injury. McQuaide reached a clearance distance of 3.66 meters in the pole vault, which is the best in the PSAC this season.
On McQuaide, Papa said, “She’s finally coming into form where we knew she could be, I would be surprised if she didn’t have an increase in that performance next week or even at the PSAC championships.”
McQuaide finished in the pole vault ahead of three other Rock women who recorded PSAC marks: junior Maria Darling, freshman Madeline Marshall and senior Megan Matrisciano, all recording a clearance distance of 3.36 meters.
The Rock women look to compete in their final event before the PSAC championships this weekend at the Edinboro Last Chance meet. Papa said he expects to see one or two more women on the team reach a PSAC qualifying mark, and also plans on resting those who have already qualified that are either coming off of injuries or just need the rest.
