Shippensburg Track and Field Finishes Indoor Season Ranked Among Nation's Best
Mar. 2, 2006
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - Led by first-year head coach Dave Osanitsch, the Shippensburg University men's track and field team achieved its highest-ever indoor season ranking in the history of the NCAA Division II Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Power Rankings at No. 9 overall and No. 1 in the East Region. The women were ranked at No. 14 overall and second in the East.
The Red Raiders captured their second consecutive Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) indoor championship on Sunday at East Stroudsburg University, becoming the second school in the five-year history of the event to win back-to-back titles. Lock Haven University was the first three from 2002-04.
Shippensburg was ranked atop the East Region rankings with a total of 246.75 points, ahead of Lock Haven who was second with 236.08 points. Six of the top-8 schools ranked from the PSAC with Slippery Rock University coming in at No. 3, followed by Kutztown University, East Stroudsburg University and Indiana University (Pa.).
Wheeling Jesuit University, who finished second at the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) Indoor Championship, was ranked No. 7, ahead of Mansfield University in eighth.
The Red Raiders' previous best final ranking in the power rankings, which have been in existence since 1998, was No. 12 in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
Meanwhile, the Shippensburg women's track and field team was second in the East Region and No. 14 in Division II with 222.84 points following the team's fifth-place finish at the 2006 PSAC Indoor Championships. The Lady Raiders trailed top-ranked Kutztown by 7.34 points.
The highest final overall ranking for Shippensburg was No. 13 in both 1998 and 1999.
The rest of the women's East Region rankings had Lock Haven at No. 3, followed by Slippery Rock, Indiana (Pa.), East Stroudsburg, Wheeling Jesuit and Mansfield.
Both the Shippensburg men's and women's teams will be idle until they begin the 2006 outdoor season on Friday, March 17 at the Ram Invitational hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University. Despite a number of NCAA provisional qualifying times, no one from Shippensburg made the final cut for the 2006 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.
- Red Raider Track and Field -
