Behrend Concludes Record Season at ECAC Championships
After qualifying 14 athletes for the Indoor ECAC Championships, the men's and women's teams did one better by sending a record 15 to the outdoor meet. The championships were held at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, which played host to 68 men's programs and 70 women's. The Behrend men finished eighteenth while the women came in fortieth.
The men's team came away with two fourth place finishes and two fifth place finishes. Senior Donnie Hackworth (Monroeville/Gateway) took fourth in the men's pole vault with by clearing 14'4" while junior Dennis Scheuer (McKean/General McLane) took fourth in the 400 meter hurdles. Scheuer shattered his school record in the hurdles by running 55.69. The fifth place finishers where senior Isiah Meek, who ran the 110 meter high hurdles in a time of 14.90, and sophomore Dan Mitchell (Bloomsburg/Bloomsburg), who threw a season-best of 187'8.5" in the javelin. With their top-eight performances, each of these athletes earned All-ECAC honors. Nick McGrady (Pittsburgh/Chartiers Valley) also threw javelin, taking eleventh with a throw of 165'2". Shane Rock (McKean/General McLane) rounded out the individual performances with a triple jump of 42'7", which earned him fifteenth place. Two men's relays also qualified for the meet. The 4x100 team of Rock, Meek, Scheuer, and Francis Kargbo (Burke, VA/J.W. Robinson) took eleventh with a time of 44.04, their best of the season. The 4x400 relay of Joe Wilcher (Irwin/Penn Trafford), Mike Barlett (Erie/Iroquois), Kevin Shugars (Wexford/North Allegheny), and Meek took thirteenth with a time of 3:26.40.
The women's top performance came from junior Staci Banaszek (Erie/Harborcreek). Banaszek took fifth in the long jump with a school record mark of 17'5.5", and was named All-ECAC in the process. Banaszek also competed in the triple and high jumps, taking tenth in the triple with a jump of 35'6" and fourteenth in the high jump with a clearance of 5'2.75". Becky Gonzalez (Morrisville/Piscataway) competed individually in the 100 meter dash and 100 meter high hurdles. Gonzalez ran a personal best in the 100, taking sixteenth with a time of 12.88. In the 100 hurdles she took thirteenth in a time of 15.87. Leisl Soergel (Evans City/Butler) was also an individual qualifier. Soergel competed in the 800 meter run and placed sixteenth with a time of 2:22.71. The 4x400, which ran a school record 4:10.00 to qualify for ECACs, broke their own mark by over two seconds. The team of Gonzalez, Nikki Mineweaser (Warren/Warren), Soergel, and Erica Smith (Polk/Franklin) ran the race in 4:07.67 to place thirteenth.
The ECAC meet concludes an outstanding season for the blue and white. The women's team set nine new indoor records and seven outdoor records while the men raised the bar in six indoor events and three outdoors.
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