Edinboro's Ben Hahn (left) and Shippensburg's Neely Spence and Mary Dell (right, l-r).
Lock Haven, Pa. - The Edinboro men’s and the Shippensburg women’s cross country teams have been picked to win their respective PSAC cross country titles this year in a vote of the league’s head coaches. This marks the second straight year the the Fighting Scot men have been chosen to win the title on the men’s side and this is the first time Shippensburg has been picked on the women’s side. This marks the second year that the PSAC has conducted a preseason poll for cross country. Both the Edinboro men and the Shippensburg women are the defending PSAC cross country champions.
Edinboro received 12 of 16 first place votes to claim the top spot on the men’s side. Lock Haven, which won the NCAA Regional title last year, came in second and received the remaining four first place votes. Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and IUP rounded out the top five. Shippensburg was a unanimous choice for the top spot on the women’s side after winning both the PSAC and NCAA Regional team titles last year. Slippery Rock, which finished second at last year’s PSAC championships, is second in the poll while Edinboro, Kutztown and Millersville round out the top five.
Edinboro is coming off its second straight PSAC cross country title last year, which was also their 27th overall in the 51-year existence of the men’s championship. It also placed second at the NCAA Regional and 16th at the NCAA Championships. The Fighting Scots will once again return a loaded roster as they go for their third consecutive title under veteran head coach Doug Watts. Juniors Ben Hahn and Barry McLaughlin, who placed second and fifth, respectively, at both last year’s PSAC championships and NCAA Regionals, both return. Hahn also placed 17th at the NCAA Championships while McLaughlin was 46th. Only one of Edinboro’s top five finishers in last year’s PSAC championships departed. Also returning is junior Kyle Jones and senior Chris Lantinen. Two other runners who finished in the top 50 last year at the conference meet as freshmen also return as sophomores this year in Jacob Krolick and Garth Watson.
Shippensburg captured its first PSAC cross country championship since 1997 last year and its third overall behind individual winner and then-freshman standout Neely Spence as the Lady Raiders edged out second place Slippery Rock by just three points. The Lady Raiders also won the NCAA Regional behind Spence, who also won the individual title there before finishing second at the NCAA Championships to help lead her team to a sixth place finish. With a championship lineup comprised of all freshmen and sophomores except for one runner last year, the Lady Raiders become the first cross country team, male or female, to be selected unanimously to win the league in the two-year history of the PSAC preseason poll. Spence, the PSAC cross country Athlete and Freshman of the Year last year, headlines Shippensburg’s returning cast that also includes juniors Mary Dell and Abby Huber, and fellow sophomore Katie Frey, who all finished in the top 20 at both last year’s PSAC championships and NCAA Regional. Also returning is junior Lindsey Hollenshead and sophomore Sarah Strayer, who each finished in the top 40.
Listed below are the preseason PSAC men’s and women’s cross country coaches polls. First place votes are in parenthesis.
Men
1. Edinboro (12)
2. Lock Haven (4)
3. Shippensburg
4. Slippery Rock
5. IUP
6. East Stroudsburg
7. Bloomsburg
8. Mansfield
9. Millersville
10. Kutztown
11. California
12. West Chester
13. Mercyhurst
14. Gannon
15. Cheyney
Women
1. Shippensburg (16)
2. Slippery Rock
3. Edinboro
4. Kutztown
5. Millersville
6. Lock Haven
7. Bloomsburg
8. IUP
9. Mercyhurst
10. Mansfield
11. Clarion
12. East Stroudsburg
13. West Chester
14. California
15. Gannon
16. Cheyney