EDINBORO, Pa. - The Shippensburg men's track and field program was in title contention for most of the day at the 2010 PSAC Indoor Championships on Sunday from the Mike S. Zafirovski Sports & Recreation Dome at Edinboro University but ultimately finished in third place while senior Donnie Graybill was named the field MVP for the second consecutive year.

“It was a great battle between us, Lock Haven and East Stroudsburg,” head coach Dave Osanitsch said. “We came up a little short today but we still scored a lot of points. We will have to fine tune some things to go outdoors to be competitive with those two programs.”

Graybill defended his PSAC championship in the heptathlon by scoring 5,092 points, an effort that now ranks fourth in Division II and will most likely allow him to travel to Albuquerque to compete in the Division II National Championships. Graybill won the heptathlon pole vault on Sunday and closed the multis with a third-place time in the 1,000-meter run of 2:52.44. In non-heptathlon competition, Graybill also finished second in the pole vault on Saturday and fourth in the high jump on Sunday.

Junior Sean Stetler capped off a breakthrough indoor meet by winning SU's first conference championship in the 3K since Allen Hanslovan in 2005. Stetler was at the front of the pack with IUP's Hillary Mugun for a majority of the race. With a little more than one lap to go, Stetler kicked it into another gear and posted a time of 8:25.84 to win by more than two seconds. In Saturday's competition, Stetler finished second to Mugun in the 5K.

The top three finishers in the mile on Sunday broke the previous indoor meet record in the event, a mark ironically enough that was established in 2005 by Hanslovan. Two of those competitors were Red Raiders. Sophomore Ed Buck placed second with a time 4:10.54, while senior Josh Neyhart aced his run with a time of 4:11.55. Another sophomore, Stephen Schelander, placed seventh in 4:16.58.

Junior Bryan Beegle also peaked late in the 3K and finished fourth, while Buck placed sixth in the 800-meter dash with a time of 1:57.20. Sprint competition saw sophomore Tyrek Nelson finish fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.38 seconds while freshman Dan Speaks snuck into the finals of the 60-meter dash and placed eighth.

The ever-exciting 4x400-meter relay at the close of the competition ultimately determined the PSAC champion, as Lock Haven's second-place finish kept them one half of a point ahead of East Stroudsburg in the closest margin of victory in conference history.

Additional drama happened in the relay but unfortunately came at Shippensburg's expense, as one of the Red Raider runners collided with a runner from another team that had already handed off his baton around the first exchange. SU was not able to make up the lost ground and as a result was held without a place at the podium.

In the field, freshmen Elijah Trusty and Matthew Terry thrived in the triple jump. Trusty finished second with a leap of 47 feet, 8.75 inches while Terry took fourth after a jump of 46 feet, 11.5 inches. Another freshman, Kyle Dickinson, placed eighth. Both Trusty and Terry placed on Saturday in the long jump.

Two Red Raiders placed in the pole vault, as junior Steve D'Arcy took fourth after a throw of 51 feet, 1.75 inches and classmate Tappah Dinnall earned eighth place with a shot of 45 feet, 2.5 inches.

“The one thing I definitely liked about the men's team today is that they definitely showed up and fought until the end,” Osanitsch said. “That's what you want, and I am proud of my team in that respect. We will build on this and we will be ready for outdoors and definitely be in the running again.”