Over the weekend, the Slippery Rock University’s women’s indoor track team competed at the Edinboro Last Chance Meet, where they recorded 20 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) marks and three NCAA marks. This was the final meet before the PSAC championships this coming weekend.
In the 60-meter dash, senior Julia Galante set a season-high and met a PSAC mark with a time of 8.09 seconds and freshman Emily Horstman also set a season-high with a time of 7.79 seconds, winning the event.
In the 400-meter dash, freshman Courtney Nunley recorded a PSAC mark with a time of 1:00.83, which won the event.
In the 800-meter run, sophomore Madison Przicina recorded a mark with a time of 2:19.80, and placing first in front of her was junior Caitlyn Janeda with a time of 2:19.45. Placing first in the 60-meter hurdles was senior Kennedy Evans with a time of 8.90, behind her were freshman Kadin Hinish with a time of 9.11, and junior Sophie Mazza with a time of 9.70.
In the high-jump, senior Sabrina Anderson recorded a mark with a distance of 1.55 meters. In the Pole Vault, three SRU women met NCAA provisional marks, with junior Courtney McQuaide, who head coach John Papa calls the “most surprising performer” after coming off an injury that kept out of last year’s season, recording a distance of 3.71 meters which won the event.
Behind her were junior Maria Darling and freshman Madeline Marshall with distances of 3.61 meters, both an NCAA provisional mark. Also meeting PSAC marks were senior Megan Matrisciano with a distance of 3.45 meters and freshman Erika Thomas with a distance of 3.30 meters.
In the triple-jump, freshman Asia Broaddus recorded a mark with a distance of 10.45 meters. In the Shot Put, junior Abby Frengel recorded a mark with a distance of 12.11 meters and senior Kelci Yale recorded a mark with a distance of 11.50 meters.
In the weight throw, Yale also recorded a mark with a distance of 13.89 meters, freshman Abby Way recorded a mark with a distance of 13.34 meters and Frengel also recorded a mark with a distance of 12.80 meters.
This weekend, the team will head back to Edinboro to compete in the PSAC championships.
The women’s team is the defending conference champions from last year, but according to the pre-championship rankings, this year’s team is expected to finish in fourth place.
Papa believes they can move up a couple spots, but for The Rock to repeat, he says that “to move up to first, a lot will have to go wrong for Shippensburg team and a lot will have to go right with us. We can rely on ourselves to do well, but we can’t really rely on Shippensburg to do poorly.”
Papa said, “We’ll get a good idea of what we’re up against as we get to see some of the top performers heading into the outdoor season, and we will be able to prepare over the next couple months to reach our ultimate goal, which is to bring home the PSAC outdoor championship.”
The Rock women are seemingly the underdogs heading into this weekend at the PSAC championships.
