Shippensburg University´s track and field team achieved multiple records and NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks at their meets this weekend – some at the Colonial Relays hosted by the college of William & Mary and some at the Millersville Metrics hosted by Millersville University.
Leah Graybill was the standout performer of the weekend, breaking the all-time 200-meter dash Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) record, enhancing her own school record in the 100-meter dash and helping to improve the school´s 4x100-meter-relay record.
Graybill smashed her personal record (PR) and the old PSAC record by running 23.65 seconds in the 200 meters at the Colonial Relays. The old PSAC record was 23.83 seconds and set by Amber Plowden from IUP in 2002. This time, an improvement of her PR by 0.78 seconds ranks Graybill third in the nation for Division II after this weekend.
Graybill also shattered her 100-meter PR and the school record by running 11.68 seconds: 0.23 seconds faster than ever before. Then she teamed up with Aliyah Serrano, Sara McKean and Kayla Dalhouse to run 46.63 seconds in the 4x100-meter relay, which improved the old school record by almost 0.2 seconds.
The men at the Colonial Relays also had strong performances.
Ian Sherlock improved his PR in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by more than eight seconds to 9:09.64 minutes at his first race in the 3,000-meter steeplechase this season. This time also met the NCAA D2 provisional qualifying standard.
Eric Kirk convinced in the 100-meter dash, running 10.75 seconds, and in the 200-meter dash with a new PR of 21.75 seconds in the 200. Mo Whittle ran 10.74 seconds in the 100-meter dash. Whittle and Kirk were part of the meet-winning 4x100-meter relay, running 41.06 seconds together with Mason Boyd and EJ Dorwil.
At Millersville, the throwers provided good results.
Josh Herbster won the hammer throw with an PR of 60.16 meters (197 feet, 4 inches), a distance that ranks him sixth in the nation for Division II after this weekend.
Pat Maloney placed second in the hammer throw with a huge PR of 58.24 meters (191 feet, 1 inches), won the discus with a NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 50.82 meters (166 feet, 9 inches) and placed second in the shot put.
For the women, Payton Bauer enhanced her PR in the shot put with a toss of 12.70 meters (41 feet, 8 inches), which ranks her fifth for the event in the PSAC.
Shippensburg´s track and field team will return to action on Wednesday afternoon at the York Twilight meet.
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