Lady Raiders Third After First Day at PSAC Indoor Championships
Feb. 25, 2006
EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. - Behind five top-10 finishes, the Shippensburg University women's track and field team is currently in third-place after the first day of competition at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Indoor Track and Field Championship hosted by East Stroudsburg University on Saturday.
As a team, the Lady Raiders totaled 32.50 points, five behind second-place Indiana University (Pa.) and 22.50 behind leader and two-time defending champion Kutztown University. Lock Haven University, winners in 2002 and 2003, is in fourth with 31 points.
Freshman Alli Rineer (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) and junior Megan Schweighofer (Tyler Hill, Pa./Honesdale) each took home third-place finishes in the 5,000-meter run and weight throw, respectively, while freshman Christine Kihm (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown) earned a fourth-place finish in the pole vault.
In the weight throw, the results mirrored the season totals as Schweighofer finished third behing Alison Maurer and Christine Procopio, each of Kutztown University. Schweighofer's throw of 53-feet, 1 1/2-inches provisionally qualified her for the NCAA championships and was just under two feet better than her previous season-best of 51-feet, 4-inches set at the Terrapin Invitational on January 21.
Senior Sonia Spriggs (Avondale, Pa./Avondale) took home seventh-place in the weight throw with a mark of 48-feet, 1-inch.
Rineer had the conference's 17th-best time in the 5,000 meters entering today's competition with a mark of 19:14.74 set on January 27 at the Bison Open. On Saturday, she cut nearly a full minute of off that time with a performance of 18:18.13. Rachael Lanzel of Edinboro University took the championship with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 17:30.47, 40 seconds ahead of second-place.
Kihm finished in a tie for fourth-place in the pole vault with Jessica Moyer of Indiana (Pa.) at 10-feet, 8-inches. The mark was less than a foot from being an NCAA provisional qualifying performance as Kihm's school record mark of 11-feet, 3 3/4-inches set at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on February 3 was 0.05 meters short as well.
Other top performances for Shippensburg included the 4x800-meter relay team that finished second in a time of 9:39.85, almost a full minute faster than the team's previous best time of 10:37.43 set last weekend at the Susquehanna Open.
Also, senior Flo Yerokun (Perkiomenville, Pa./Spring-Ford) and freshman Siobhan Richards (York Haven, Pa./York Haven) each qualified for the finals of the 55-meter dash, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively while senior Anna Mack (Olyphant, Pa./Lakeland) finished sixth in the 55-meter hurdle preliminaries to qualify for the finals.
Competition in this year's PSAC Indoor Track and Field Championship continues on Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
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Lady Raider Track and Field -
