Relay Splits:
1200: Mary Dell, 3:30
400: Shannon Hare, 57.8
800: Abby Huber, 2:14
1600: Neely Spence, 4:48
Courtesy of Bill Morgal, Interim Sports Information Director, Shippensburg University
Shippensburg Women's Distance Medley Relay Team Shatters PSAC
Record Friday Night at Penn State National Invitational
January 30, 2009
Shippensburg Women's Distance Medley Relay Team Shatters PSAC Record Friday
Night at Penn State National Invitational
Online: http://www.shipraiders.com/news/2009/1/30/WTRACK_0130093645.aspx
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The Shippensburg University women's distance medley
relay team of junior Mary Dell (Boiling Springs/Boiling Springs), sophomore
Abby Huber (Mechanicsburg/Cumberland Valley), junior Shannon Hare
(Middletown/Middletown) and freshman Neely Spence
(Shippensburg/Shippensburg) posted a jaw-dropping time of 11:30.59 on Friday
night from the Penn State National Invitational on the Horace Ashenfelter
III Indoor Track that shattered the previous conference record by more than
28 seconds.
Shippensburg finished second at the Division-I dominated event, besting
Georgetown by 0.20 seconds and topping schools such as Virginia, West
Virginia, Connecticut and host Penn State. Lock Haven finished 33 seconds
behind the Lady Raider quartet, placing 11th. Villanova won the DMR on
Friday night with a time of 11:18.83.
As a means of comparison, the winning DMR time at last year's Division II
Indoor Championships was 11:39.81, a full nine seconds behind the Lady
Raider quartet. Shippensburg finished less than one second behind the
all-time D-II championship meet record of 11:29.89 recorded in 2007 by Grand
Valley State.
Shippensburg held the previous PSAC record that was set last season with a
time of 11:59.08. The group of Hare, Huber, Dell and current sophomore Jamie
McCollum (Duncannon/Susquenita) earned All-American status for the
performance at the Division II National Championships held at Minnesota
State-Mankato.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2009
Spence Breaks PSAC Record in 3,000-Meters to Highlight Sensational Second Day at Bison Open
Dell improves her own school record in the 800-meters
Results: http://bucknellbison.cstv.com/sports/w-track/stats/2008-2009/bisonopenandmulti2009results.html
LEWISBURG, Pa. - One day after anchoring the Shippensburg DMR team to the best time in PSAC history, freshman Neely Spence (Shippensburg/Shippensburg) set another conference record on Saturday afternoon from the Bison Open & Multi at Bucknell by establishing the best 3,000-meter run to date by more than five seconds with a time of 9:42.25.
Shippensburg posted three other first-place finishes on Saturday in addition to Spence's run, as junior Mary Dell (Boiling Springs/Boiling Springs), sophomore Erica Hess (Selinsgrove/Selinsgrove) and sophomore Emily Dubs (Dover/Northeastern) each earned top marks in their respective events.
Dell, another integral member of the record-setting DMR team, edged rival Priscilla Jennings of Millersville by 0.40 seconds to win the 800-meter run with a new school record and a PSAC season-best time of 2:14.49 that was just one second short of an automatic qualifier. Dell improved upon her own school record in the event by 0.14 seconds.
Meanwhile, Hess won a 400-meter dash for the third consecutive week, edging the competition with a time of PSAC season-best 58.15 seconds. Hess's time surpassed the previous conference-best time of sophomore Laura Henzy (Langhorne/Neshaminy), who finished third on Saturday in 58.97 seconds.
Hess and Henzy also finished fifth and sixth respectively in the 200-meter dash with times of 26.38 and 26.48 seconds, while junior Shannon Hare (Middletown/Middletown) was right behind the pair in the 400-meter dash with a fourth-place time of 59.53 seconds.
Sophomore Abby Huber (Mechanicsburg/Cumberland Valley) continued her sensational weekend as well with some stand-out performances. Her strongest effort of the day came in the 1-mile run, where she finished second to Jennings with an NCAA-provisional time of 5:02.79.
Other top individual performances included a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles (9.19 seconds) for senior Michelle Morcom (Moscow/Western Wayne) and fourth-place finishes for freshman Lauren Redington (Northumberland/Shikellamy) and senior Siobhan Richards (York Haven/Northeastern) in the 60-meter dash (8.07 seconds).
Dubs won the infrequently competed 500-yard dash on Saturday with a time of 1:20.10, edging Kutztown's Jill Kostishion by more than two seconds. In the 4x400-meter relay, freshman Katie Craven (York/Central York) combined with Hare, Hess and Henzy for a third-place finish in 4:03.26.
The previous conference record in the 3,000-meters was set in 1990, as Donna Thibert of Edinboro held a time of 9:47.60. Intriguingly enough, Clarion's Erin Richard finished second on Saturday with a time of 9:44.24 that also would have broken the record had Spence not recorded her time.
Shippensburg will return to action next weekend with competition from the New Balance Games in New York and the DeSchriver Invitational in East Stroudsburg.