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EDINBORO, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's track and field team finished third at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Indoor Championships Saturday from Edinboro University.
 
Shippensburg claimed its ninth straight title with 134 points, while East Stroudsburg had a strong day to overtake Slippery Rock and Kutztown to finish second with 98 points. The Rock and Kutztown tied for third with 80 points and Seton Hill rounded out the top five with 79 points.
 
With the threat of extreme winds forecasted for Sunday, meet officials made the decision late Friday night to condense the two-day meet to one-day, altering the schedule and trying to fit the entire competition into just one day.
 
That decision meant many athletes that expected to get ample rest over two days were asked to compete in multiple events on the same day.
 
One athlete that benefited from that decision was Slippery Rock's lone individual champion of the weekend, Steven Girgash. Girgash has battled some injury issues this winter and the consolidation to one day meant the seven-event heptathlon was changed to a five-event pentathlon. Girgash thrived after that change and won the title with 3,600 points, marking his second straight indoor title in the muti-event competition. He paced SRU to 14 points in the event with Dylan Colcombe placing fifth with 3,246 points.
 
Colcombe also scored four points for SRU in the pole vault with a fifth place finish and a clearance of 4.29 meters. He was joined by Jakob Graff, who finished sixth at 4.14 meters to give SRU seven points in the vault.
 
JJ Ollio scored 16 points for SRU with a pair of runner-up finishes in the throws. He took second in the weight throw with a toss of 17.07 meters and was second in the shot put with a mark of 16.52 meters. John Eakin joined Ollio in the shot put to place fifth with a mark of 15.31 meters to give The Rock 12 points in the event.
 
Jesse Romanchak joined the All-PSAC (top three individuals in each event) party in the field events with a third place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 14.20 meters. Josiah Davis finished seventh with a mark of 13.59 meters to give SRU eight points in the event. Romanchak was also fourth in the long jump with a leap of 6.75 meters to finish his day with 11 points for SRU, while Davis was seventh in the high jump at 1.89 meters to finish his day with four points.
 
SRU scored points in every field event contested Saturday, but picked up points in just six events on the track.
 
Collin Darby scored in both the short sprints, placing fifth in the 60-meter dash in 6.92 seconds and finishing eighth in the 200-meter dash in 22.32 seconds.
 
Daniel Janyska and John Marenkovic both scored in the mile with strong finishes. Janyska was fourth in 4:25.50, while Marenkovic was sixth in 4:26.63. That came after both of them scored for SRU earlier in the day in the distance medley relay, where they teamed with Kyle Edgar and Troy Shattuck to place third in 10:22.92.
 
SRU also placed in the 4x800-meter relay with a fifth place showing from the team of Tim Ferguson, Dillon McConnell, Alex Dickson and Gunner Coleman clocking a time of 8:09.32.
 
The last points for SRU on the track came in the 60-meter hurdles, where Zach Wise placed eighth in 8.81 seconds.
 
Saturday marked the end of the indoor season for the majority of the SRU roster, which will now turn their focus to the outdoor season. Those SRU athletes with NCAA provisional marks (Ollio, Smithco) will find out next week if they are accepted to compete in the Division II National Championships.
 


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