Slippery Rock men’s indoor track and field traveled to Lehigh University on Saturday and Sunday for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships. The team sat in second place after day one and ended day two in third place.
The Rock walked away with four first place finishes in pole vault, 60-meter hurdle preliminaries, 60-meter hurdle finals, and 200-meter dash. Drew Layton reached a height of 4.90 meters for pole vault, Matthew Crow clocked a time of 8.07 for the 60-meter hurdles and AJ Virata with 22.01 in the 200-meter dash.
Crow led the charge in the prelims by breaking his SRU record, bringing his time down from 8.08 to 8.07. His efforts landed him a win in the prelims and crossed the finish line first during the finals on Sunday.
Day One
Zach Gose was first to put an All-PSAC mark up for the White and Green by coming in second in the weight throw with a distance of 18.66 meters. Ryan Olesky placed three spots behind Gose, coming in fifth.
Along with Layton coming in first for the pole vault, Logan Gossard came in third with a launch of 4.90, same as Taylor Labarre from East Stroudsburg University. Scott Finch tied with two other athletes for sixth place with a time of 4.35 meters.
Layton claimed his first career title in the event along with an All-PSAC denotation. The sophomore is a two-time PSAC Championship Qualifier and 2024’s PSAC Freshman of the Year. Gossard’s number was also good enough for an All-PSAC honor.
Kadin Johnson earned himself a third place slot in the 400-meter prelims as well as earning a qualifier for finals. Micah Good chimed in with a qualifying time of 51.05.
Crow was the only athlete to qualify for finals for The Rock in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries after coming in first.
Anderson closed out the opening day by coming in fifth in the long jump. The multi-event freshman already had four events under his belt for the day as well as competing in the first four events of the heptathlon.
The Rock went into the final day with several finals entries still to go, sitting in second in the team standings.
Day Two
Slippery Rock wrapped up the PSAC Championship in third place, walking away with 10 athletes earning All-PSAC honors by placing in the top three of their events. SRU also tallied five National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) provisional marks.
Kanye Thompson was one of the athletes to earn an NCAA mark in the 60-meter dash by clocking in a time of 6.70.
Seaton Wozniak and Joshua Gose were the two Rock athletes to earn the mark in the shot put finals with Wozniak coming in second and Gose coming in third.
Gose is a 12-time PSAC Championship Qualifier and now a seven-time All PSAC honors. The graduate student is also a two-time College Sport Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District and All-American.
Virata clinched two All-PSAC honors in the 200-meter dash and the 4×400-meter relay. He placed third in the 200-meter dash and the meter relay.
Troy Hart was the last to put up a mark for the White and Green in the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:37.53. That time secured him fourth place.
This two-day event closed out the indoor season for those who did not reach an NCAA qualifying mark.
Rock athletes who achieved qualifying marks will find out on Tuesday if their efforts were enough for a trip to National Championships.
Those SRU athletes who qualified will head to the NCAA Division II National Championships from March 13 to March 15.
The NCAA Championships will take place at the Fall Creek Pavilion in Indianapolis, Ind. for both the men’s team and the women’s team.
