Shippensburg - 2010 PSAC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Champions
Shippensburg Women Claim First PSAC Outdoor Track & Field Title Since 1998
Final Results
West Chester, Pa. - After winning the 2010 PSAC women's indoor track & field championship and also winning a share of the indoor title along with Slippery Rock two years ago, the Shippensburg women's outdoor track & field team finally broke through and claimed the outdoor championship as the Lady Raiders won their first PSAC women's outdoor track & field title since 1998.
The Lady Raiders ended a four-year run for Slippery Rock, which had won every outdoor title since 2006 and six of the last seven, with Kutztown's win in 2005 the only time The Rock had not won the outdoor title since 2003. The title is the fifth all-time for Shippensburg, which is now alone in second place for the most PSAC outdoor titles behind only Slippery Rock's 16 all-time titles.
After finished 16.5 points behind The Rock last year, Shippensburg finished 29.5 points ahead of Rock this time, compiling 212.50 points to top Rock's 183. Kutztown finished a distant third with 99.50 points while East Stroudsburg was fourth with 97.
The Lady Raiders got big performances from Neely Spence and Mary Dell to overtake The Rock, which had led after both the first and second nights of the championship. One night after successfully defending her title in the 5,000 meters, Spence did the same in the 3,000 meters, running away with the title in a PSAC meet record of 9:31.43, nearly 23 second in front the second place finisher. Dell, new to the steeplechase this year, won that event by almost 10 seconds in 10:52.90 and Dell made it a double as she also won the 1,500 meters in 4:33.65, edging out her teammate Spence, who finished in second place just .04 of a second behind Dell. Those were Shippensburg's only individual event winners on Saturday but the Raiders placed several athletes in the points to win the title despite having fewer individual event winners than Slippery Rock.
Other highlights on Saturday included IUP's Maddy Outman repeating as the champion in the 100 meter hurdles, winning in a new PSAC meet and overall record time of :13.70. Outman also added the 400 meter dash to her list of titles, running a new PSAC meet record time of :54.79 to just edge out last year's champion, Shippensburg's Erica Hess. California's Clare McSweeney ran to a new meet record time of 2:08.75 in winning the 800 meters while Slippery Rock's Amanda Seigworth defended her title in the 400 meter hurdles, just missing a PSAC record with a time of :59.76.
For her efforts, Outman, who also won the heptathlon title yesterday, was named both the track MVP and the overall MVP of the meet. Kutztown's Ashley Pinter, who won both the discus throw and the hammer throw, was named the field MVP.
Track MVP - Maddy Outman (IUP)
Field MVP - Ashley Pinter (Kutztown)
Overall MVP - Maddy Outman (IUP)