Men claim indoor track and field title

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The titles just keep coming for Shippensburg University. For the seventh straight year, and 10th overall, SU took home the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championship in track and field this weekend, narrowly beating Slippery Rock University.

SU won four events over the weekend, scoring almost 100 points Saturday to pass Slippery Rock for the win, 143–141.5. It was the seventh consecutive year that the Raiders took home the PSAC title and the 10th year overall. There have only been 16 PSAC championships awarded.

Multiple Raiders had impressive outings, especially in the field. Athletes like Alec Rideout broke records to earn their place at the top of the podium. Rideout won the shot put with a new PSAC Indoor Championships record of 57–10 1/4, which was also a new PR for him.

Caleb Bartlett returned to the weight throw on the first day of the tournament for only the second time since recovering from his injury and he was able to claim first place. His first throw was the one that clinched the title for him, reaching a distance of 60–4 3/4. It was Bartlett’s final appearance in the weight throw of his collegiate career.

Bryan Pearson and Rideout also performed well in the weight throw, with Pearson claiming third with an impressive throw of 59–2 3/4. Rideout came in eighth with a throw of 51–3 3/4. The Raiders earned 17 points from the weight throw.

Another standout performance from Friday was the distance medley relay. Harrison Schettler, Calvin Dennis, Tim Usher and Dominic Stroh claimed first place, beating Slippery Rock on the final relay, which saw Stroh face the PSAC mile record holder, Ryan Thompson.

Shippensburg was sitting in second place after the first day, trailing Slippery Rock by just two points.

In the shot put, Pearson came in second and Bartlett came in seventh behind Rideout’s record throw. It was Pearson’s new collegiate PR of 56–5 3/4 on his second throw that put him in second. The Raiders gained 20 points from the shot put, their most from any event.

Tra-C Davis finished his impressive run of form with a PSAC title in the high jump. He was SU’s only competitor in the event, but he put on a show. Davis was the second high jump champion for SU in three years. He won the title with a jump of 6–9 1/2.

Chris Craig came in second in the 200-meter, beating out Lock Haven University’s Brian Zimmerman by just .02 seconds. Craig missed out on first place by only .11 seconds. Dreux Stamford came in fifth in the 60-meter, but also earned points in the 200, coming in seventh.

Another good performance from the track came from Tim Usher, who followed up his victory in the medley relay with a third place finish in the 800-meter. He had an impressive time of 1:56.07.