Edinboro Picked to Finish First in the 2021 PSAC Men’s Preseason Poll
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. --- The defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Men’s Cross Country Champion the Edinboro University Fighting Scots were selected as the 2021 PSAC Men’s Cross Country Preseason favorite in a vote by the league’s head coaches, the conference office announced Thursday.
The Fighting Scots won a third consecutive PSAC Championship in 2020-21. Boro dominated in the meet with five top-10 finishers winning with 22 points. Danny Desmond finished third and Reis Ward came in fourth at the championship meet in March. Boro will likely return a few of their top runners from the 2020-21 shortened season hoping to win four consecutive conference titles.
Finishing in second place in the PSAC meet, and claiming the second spot in the preseason poll is Shippensburg. The Red Raiders are returning fifth-place finisher Chayce Macknair and ninth-place Drew Daily. Both also earned First-Team All-PSAC Honors for their top-15 finishes in the meet.
Selected in to finish third was Lock Haven. The Bald Eagles tallied 79 points in the PSAC Championship Meet in 2020-21. They will likely return Zack Skrabski, who claimed first-team all-conference honors in last year’s championship.
2020-21 PSAC Championship fifth-place finisher, Gannon, was selected to finish fourth in the league for the upcoming season. The Golden Knights will bring back a pair of second-team all-conference honorees including Caleb Mandel and Ely Personius.
The fifth picked team in the league was IUP. The Crimson Hawks will look to Evan Weaver, Marco Cardone and Nathan Skodi to keep the pace this season.
Picked to finish sixth behind IUP was Slippery Rock. The Rock will return Shannon Dooley, who was a second-team all-conference honoree last year. They’ll also bring back Devon Navaroli and have a few promising freshmen on the roster this season.
Rounding out the top 10 selections were Seton Hill, Cal U, Bloomsburg and Kutztown.
Concluding the poll was East Stroudsburg, West Chester, Mansfield, Mercyhurst, Pitt-Johnstown and Shepherd.
Shepherd will be competing in its first full year of PSAC men’s cross country. The season gets started on Thursday, September 2nd.
The full poll is listed below:
PSAC Men’s Cross Country Preseason Poll
1. Edinboro
2. Shippensburg
3. Lock Haven
4. Gannon
5. IUP
6. Slippery Rock
7. Seton Hill
8. Cal U
9. Bloomsburg
10. Kutztown
11. East Stroudsburg
12. West Chester
13. Mansfield
14. Mercyhurst
15. Pitt-Johnstown
16. Shepherd
ABOUT THE PSAC
Headquartered in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference comprised of 18 institutions in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The member institutions are Bloomsburg University, California University of Pennsylvania, Clarion University, East Stroudsburg University, Edinboro University, Gannon University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown University, Lock Haven University, Mansfield University, Mercyhurst University, Millersville University, The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Seton Hill University, Shepherd University, Shippensburg University, Slippery Rock University and West Chester University.