By: By: Bill Morgal, Interim Sports Information Director
was named the 2010 PSAC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year on Tuesday afternoon by conference officials after voting was conducted by the league's coaches. Through two years of college, Spence has been named the PSAC Athlete of the Year in all six of the intercollegiate seasons in which she has competed (cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field).
During the outdoor campaign, Spence defended her 5K national championship with a time of 16:14.23 that was just short of her own school record in the event. Through two seasons, Spence is a five-time All-American in track and field and a four-time national champion. She has run the 5K three times on the national stage and never lost.
The 5K title helped Shippensburg culminate its best season in program history with a ninth-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track Field Championships. The Lady Raiders totaled 23 points, marking the first time in school history that four SU women earned All-American status from individual event competition at a national meet.
Spence was a three-time All-PSAC athlete in outdoor competition and won two conference titles, including a victory in the 3K by a margin of 22 seconds. She contributed 28 points to a Shippensburg squad that recorded a meet-record 212.5 points and was an integral factor in the program becoming the first in the history of the PSAC to achieve a Triple Crown by winning the cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field championships in the same calendar year since the PSAC began sponsoring an indoor championship in 2002.
She set two individual and one relay school record during the season. On May 1 at Princeton, Spence broke the 26-year-old PSAC record in the 3K with a time of 9:21.49 that also shattered Kathy Stec's 22-year-old school record by more than 21 seconds. The time reads two-tenths of a second short of Julie Bowers time in 1984, but that mark was a hand time and upon conversion it is .05 seconds slower than Spence's effort.
At the Penn Relays, Spence finished fourth in the 5K with a time of 16:13.34 that improved her own school record in the event by 22 seconds. Despite battling cold symptoms that day, Spence only trailed runners from Stony Brook, Villanova and George Washington. She also contributed to the 4x800-meter relay team that ran at Bucknell on April 10 which broke the previous PSAC record with a time of 9:07.63.
Spence, the 2010 PSAC Sportsmanship Award winner, is a gifted student in the classroom as well. Two weeks ago, she was selected to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's Track & Field/Cross Country First Team for the College Division of District II. She is a human communication studies major seeking a minor in coaching, and finished her fourth collegiate semester with a 3.80 grade-point average (GPA).
