Members of the ESU team will compete in the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships May 24-26 at SIU-Edwardsville. The team's top potential qualifiers are Quanette Jester, triple jump and/or high jump; Shavanna Ross, 400 hurdles and/or high jump; David Dean, javelin; Mike Newhard, high jump, and Jenn Grube, javelin.

The Warriors won the 4 x 400-meter relay for the second straight year and finished third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships with 85 points, the school's most in 19 years. The 1982 team scored 112 points in placing second in the meet.

Cheryl Griffin (Sr., Walden, N.Y./Valley Central), running the final race of a sensational collegiate career, blazed around the quarter-mile Shippensburg track in 56.6 to give the relay team a commanding lead in its repeat victory.

Other relay runners were Jen Eye (So., Aristes, Pa./North Schuylkill), who led off with a 61.4 leg, Angela Gray (Fr., Jersey City, N.J./Ferris), 59.2 as the third runner, and Shavanna Ross (Sr., Center Valley, Pa./William Allen), who brought it home in 57.9. The team's total time was 3:55.35, which was a second ahead of Kutztown, which finished in 3:56.37.

Griffin then anchored the Warriors' 4 by 100-meter relay team to a school record 48.27 and a second-place finish. The other three team members were Jackie Babbini (So., Cliffside Park, N.J./Cliffside Park), Eye and Quanette Jester (Sr., Oakland, N.J./Indian Hills).

Individually, Griffin placed second in the 200-meter dash for the second straight year in 25.14 and was fourth in the 100 dash in 12.39. She left ESU as the Senior Athlete of the Year, the Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year (a Summa Cum graduate in English) and the holder of nine school track and field records, five of them individual.

Jester placed in three events with a second in the triple jump at 37-11 1/2, third in the long jump at 17-8 3/4 and sixth in the high jump at 5-4 1/4. She was a conference place-winner 14 times during her career.

Ross was runner-up in two events, the 400-meter hurdles in 1:02.11 and the high jump at 5-6 1/4 and placed sixth in the 100 hurdles in 15.34. Jenn Grubb (Sr., Easton, Pa./Wilson) was second in the javelin with a throw of 139-1. Grube was an All-America in the javelin last year, placing fifth in the nationals with a throw of 146-7.

Babbini broke the school record with 4,266 points in placing fourth in the heptathlon. Other place-winners were Christel Hibbard (Jr., Springville, Pa./Elk Lake), fourth in the 3000-meter steeplechase in a school-record 11:48.31, and sixth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:20.54; Gray fourth in the 400-meter dash in a personal-best 57.59 and Kelli Strickler (Jr., Stowe, Pa./Pottsgrove) fifth in the high jump at 5-4 1/4..

Grubb (javelin), Ross (400 hurdles and high jump) and Jester (triple jump and high school) all are top potential qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships/

Freshman Mike Newhard (Fr., Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) leaped 6-10 to win the high jump title and become East Stroudsburg's first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference individual champion in three years.

Newhard cleared 6-10 on his second attempt. He also missed once at 6-8 before going over the bar. He defeated teammate Brad Fees (So., Port Carbon, Pa./Pottsville), who finished second at 6-8. Both are coached by Karen Way, a three-time PSAC champion from 1989-91.

In the 70-year history of the PSAC track meet, no East Stroudsburg competitor had ever gained sole possession of the men's high jump title. Back in 1940, East Stroudsburg's Ed Morgan finished in a three-way tie for first place in the high jump at the conference meet. The winning height 61 years ago was 6-0 1/2.

The Warriors had two other second-place finishers in David Dean (So., Long Valley, N.J./West Morris), runner-up in the javelin with a career-best throw of 200-01, and Mark Stinson (So., Wescosville, Pa./Emmaus), second in the 200-meter dash in 22.19.

Stinson also finished sixth in the long jump at 22-3 1/4 and ran on two place-winning relay teams. He ran a sizzling 48.3 anchor leg on a 4 x 400-meter relay which finished second in a season-best 3:19.54. Other runners were Andrew Morris (Fr., Randolph, N.J./Randolph), 50.2; Dan Garibaldi (Jr., Toms River, N.J./Toms River East), 50.1, and Jim Dawson (Fr., Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy), 50.2.

Stinson also combined with John Van Soest (Jr., Fair Lawn, N.J./Fair Lawn), Morris and Tom Schultz (Fr., Marshalls Creek, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) on a 4 x 100-meter relay team which was fourth in a season-best 42.52.

The Warriors' Doug Springer (Jr., Randolph, N.J./Randolph) was fourth in the pole vault at 14-4.

The team scored 51 points, which was more than double its 2000 total of 20 points, in placing seventh of the 14 teams.

Newhard (high jump) and Dean (javelin) are top potential qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships.