Track & Field

Lock Haven Repeats as Champions in Indoor Track & Field
Millersville's Stallings and IUP's Bullard Outanding Athletes

March 2, 2003

East Stroudsburg, Pa. - Lock Haven University repeated as men's and women's champions at the second annual Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships. Individually, Millersville's Mark Stallings repeated as Men's Outstanding Athlete while IUP's Rebecca Bullard was the women's awardee.

The other individual award winners were Natasha Jarrett of East Stroudsburg as the women's Outstanding Track Athlete and Matthew Peters as the men's Outstanding Field Athlete.

The Lock Haven women came away with five first place finishes in the two day event. Jennifer Farrow won both the 200 meters (25.77) and 400 meters (56.88) while J.J. Held took the pole vault (10-8), Bri Palazzi the triple jump (38-11 ½), a PSAC indoor record, and Melissa Miller the weight throw (49-0) to direct the winning effort. The Bald Eagles scored 110.33 points to win the women's side while Kutztown was second (79) and East Stroudsburg third with 78 points.

Bullard of IUP won the women's pentathlon with 3,520 points and high jump (5-4 ½) to be selected as both the women's Outstanding Athlete and Outstanding Field Athlete. ESU's Jarrett won the 55 meters in a PSAC record 7.23 and 200 meters in 25.84 to be chosen the women's Outstanding Track Athlete.

Bloomsburg's Danielle Kramer ran to win both the 3000 meters (10:24.99) and 5000 meters (18:06.14) as the lone other double winner for the women.

Five other women's PSAC indoor records fell in the meet. Two relay records were part of the five in the 4x800 meter relay by Kutztown (Lauren Maxwell, Tracey Yeager, Janelle Kostishion, Niya Adams) in 9:29.87 and in the 4x400 meter relay from East Stroudsburg (Jackie Babbini, Jillian Koscielecki, Kristin Mullin, Tawny Youtz) in 3:58.59. Kuztown's Niya Adams set the mark in the 800 meters (2:17.81), Shippensburg's Tunisia Lacy for the long jump (18-6 ½) and Makenzie Gurcak of Slippery Rock in the shot put (44-11).

The deep Lock Haven men won only three events but came away second points better than Shippensburg 110-103 for their second title in as many years. Kutztown was third at 97.5 points. The Bald Eagles three top places came in the 200 meters by Joe Webster (22.28), which was a PSAC record, distance medley relay (Paul Hallman, Thomas Skrivanek, Joe Smolenski, Christopher Cowan) in 10:20.53 and Matt Stinson in the pentathlon with 3,729 points.

For the second-straight season, Mark Stallings of Millersville was named the men's Outstanding Athlete and Outstanding Track Athlete. Stallings won the mile run in a conference record 4:20.33, 3000 meters (8:40.00) and 5000 meters (15:22.22). Shippensburg's Matthew Peters was picked as the men's Outstanding Field Athlete. Peters set the PSAC 35-pound weight throw with a toss of 53-2 and the shot put 52-7.

Four track and two field conference records were set in the championships. Jermaine Clayton of IUP sprinted to a new mark in the 55 meter dash of 6.42 and Ben Steingrabe from Slippery Rock set a new record of 7.56 in the 55 meter hurdles. Two relays broke records of the Kutztown 4x400 meter relay (Tim Bartholomew, Dan Patton, Matthew Carroll, Scott Eisenhart) of 3:19.50 and Shippensburg's 4x800 meter relay team (David Diffenderfer, Derek Hockenberry, Mark Piccolo, Kenrick Marsh) in 7:54.89.

The two new field records came in the high jump and long jump events. Mike Newhard of East Stroudsburg broke his own high jump record with a jump of 6-10 ½ and Justin Collins from Kuztown set the long jump record at 24-1 ½.