Shippensburg University’s indoor track-and-field teams participated in two events this past weekend. The men’s team placed fourth and the women’s team placed fifth at the River Hawk Friday Night Showdown at Susquehanna University, while some of the team’s best went to the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational at Liberty University.
The meet at Susquehanna allowed the competitors one last chance to qualify for next weekend’s Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championships, and two Raiders took advantage.
The women’s team saw a pair of new PSAC qualifiers, one in each discipline. For track, sophomore Faith Wilson finished the 800 meters at 2:25.51, finishing 0.15 seconds faster than the required time to qualify, and placing fourth in the event. Freshman Elliot Oliphant qualified for PSACs as well, placing third in the high jump at 1.55 meters.
The men’s team picked up two event wins in the River Hawk Friday Night Showdown, with sophomore Ryan Wolfe prevailing in the 3K at 9:04.06. Shippensburg also swept the top two spots in the 800-meter dash, with freshman Jackson Gutekunst coming in first with a 2:01.76, beating junior Ryan Scicchitano by 0.24 seconds.
Freshman Colin Daub placed second in the shot put at 14.43 meters, hitting a PSAC-qualifying mark twice in two weeks.
The Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational saw strong performances by multiple Raiders against very stiff competition. One of the highlights on the men’s team was sophomore Jabrie Gaymon setting a new personal best in the triple jump at 45 ft, 4.5 in, the tenth best mark in the PSAC this season.
Both 4x400-meter relay teams had impressive results at Liberty. The men’s team of freshman Bernard Bell III, junior Mason Boyd, freshman Jak Kearney and senior Eric Kirk placed eighth with a season-best time of 3:18.67, the second-best time of any PSAC team this season. On the women’s side, the team of freshman Ryleigh Marks, junior Caroline Mastria, junior Aliyah Serrano and sophomore Alyssa Wert placed sixth with a time of 3:55.36, placing them in second on the PSAC leaderboard as well.
Both teams will be heading to Lehigh University this weekend for the PSAC Championships, with the Raiders looking to continue their success in the event. The men’s indoor team will be going for their thirteenth straight conference title, while the women are trying to go back-to-back. The two-day event starts on Sunday.
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