Over the past weekend, the Slippery Rock University women’s indoor track and field team traveled to Lehigh University to compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship. The Rock walked away with their third straight indoor title, bringing their overall total to nine. The three-peat brings them to tie with Shippensburg University for the most indoor titles in PSAC history.
Day one
Allie Taylor paved the way on Saturday, earning the sole first-place win of the day in pole vault. The senior reached a mark of 3.65 meters to gain ten points for the White and Green.
The Rock had six other athletes finish in the top five in their respective events.
Leighanne Swan and Autumn Wyatt placed second and third in the pentathlon, earning their first career All-PSAC honors. Both put up career-best times, with Swan recording 3,393 points and Wyatt with 3,321.
Other top scorers for the White and Green were Baylee Blauser in the long jump final with a distance of 5.86 meters to secure second place. Four other Rock athletes placed in that event. Tayla Kurzawa, Wyatt, Alice Bogia and Kate Walasavage placed in the top 20.
Ruthie Hughes led the way on the track with a second-place finish in the 5,000-meter run final. She crossed the finish line with a time of 17:48.13, gaining eight points for The Rock. Carissa Flynn also placed with a time of 18:01.87, and brought it to a total of 12 points for the event.
Ondrea Young dominated in the prelims event, placing third in the 60-meter hurdles and qualifying for finals.
Lydia Reed and Grace Lennon also got qualifying marks in their respective events.
Slippery Rock closed out day one with a total of 50 points.
Day two
The PSAC Championships wrapped up the following day at Rauch Fieldhouse.
The top event of the day was the shot put. Becca Martin, Olivia Heckman and Haley Domagala earned a total of 17 points. Martin and Heckman earned All-PSAC honors.
13 more points were picked up in the triple jump. Bogia and Baylee Blauser placed second and fourth. Bogia recorded a mark of 11.94 meters, and Blauser had 11.67. Julia Coffaro, Kurzawa, Wyatt and Book also placed within the top 15.
The team of Ava Reagle, Shannon McCullough, Annasophia Stauffer and Reed placed fifth in the 4×400-meter relay, which rounded out the top-scoring events. The group finished with a time of 4:00.57 to add three points to SRU’s total.
On the track, five other athletes earned points towards The Rock’s final total.
Grace Lennon and Young totaled five points in their separate events. Lennon placed seventh in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.94, and Young secured sixth in the 60-meter hurdles.
Reed, Flynn and Hughes all claimed a seventh-place spot in their events. Reed finished in 26.21 seconds in the 200-meter dash, Flynn finished the 3,000-meter in 10:23.99, and Hughes completed the mile run in 5:13.38.
Slippery Rock earned their third straight championship title after totaling 98.5 points over the two days.
Along with the championship, The Rock took home another major award. Jennifer Cichra was named the Champion Scholar Award winner.
Now, with the conclusion of the indoor season, the team will shift their focus to the outdoor season, which is set to start March 21 at California University (Pa.).
