Final Results (PDF)  |  Photo Gallery (Photos provided by Millersville)

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's track and field team took second at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships that wrapped up Saturday evening from Millersville University.
 
Shippensburg earned the victory in the team standings with 200 points. Slippery Rock took second with 118.5 points. East Stroudsburg was third with 104.5 points, followed by Edinboro with 88 points and Cal U with 57 points to round out the top five.  
 
Slippery Rock also took second on the women's side to be the only program in the PSAC to bring home four track and field trophies this year after SRU was second for both the men and women indoors as well.
 
Those two trophies give Slippery Rock head coach John Papa an incredible 57 team trophies in his 35-year career leading the program. Saturday marked the final PSAC meet for Papa, who will retire in June. He closes his team career with 25 PSAC titles and 32 runner-up finishes at conference championship meets. Papa coached SRU athletes to a total of 345 individual or relay PSAC titles, including seven this weekend. Prior to the awards ceremony Saturday, he was recognized by the PSAC and its head coaches in a short ceremony.
 

TRACK: In a fitting tribute to head coach John Papa, the SRU track and field athletes all went out and got flannel shirts to wear and we & Millersville surprised coach Papa with a little tribute at the end of the PSAC Championships today. Pap is retiring in June after 35 years. pic.twitter.com/B1f5KVmOZR

— Rock Athletics (@Rock_Athletics) May 14, 2022

The Rock finished the three-day competition with wins in five of the 19 individual events, three of which came Saturday from John Eakin, Dalton Anderson and Dan Hyatt. AJ Virata and Jason Goodman both won events on Friday.
 
The headliner of that group was Eakin, who broke the PSAC meet record and the SRU program record in the shot put with an NCAA provisional mark of 17.95 meters. His throw topped the former SRU record of 17.50 meters that was set by Cory Darr in 2002 and moves Eakin up seven spots on the national list to No. 13 in Division II as of 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Joshua Gose also earned an All-PSAC honor in the shot put with a third place finish and a toss of 16.50 meters.
 
Anderson picked up a win in the javelin in dramatic fashion and needed only one throw to do it. His opening throw of the competition was an NCAA provisional mark of 65.44 meters, which ended up winning the event by just 11 centimeters. Dylan Close took fourth with an NCAA provisional mark of 58.49 meters to give SRU 15 points in the event.
 
Dan Hyatt claimed the third win of the day for SRU when he cleared a season-best 4.65 meters to win the pole vault, sweeping the conference titles this year after also winning the vault indoors. Cameron Cowder was fifth at 4.35 meters and Jason Goodman tied for eighth at 4.20 meters to give SRU 14.5 points in the event.
 
The Rock also got a pair of All-PSAC finishes from Virata on Saturday as the freshman capped a stellar first year at SRU. After winning the high jump Friday, he came back and took second place in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. VIrata clocked times of 10.82 seconds in the 100m and 21.72 seconds in the 200m. He closed the weekend scoring 26 individual points for SRU.
 
Brenden Lewis found out Saturday morning that he was reinstated to the finals of the 110-meter hurdles after posting the second-best prelim time Friday. He was disqualified after the prelims, but after a protest by the SRU coaches, was reinstated. He turned that break into an All-PSAC finish by taking second in the 110-meter hurdle finals in 14.91 seconds to score eight points for the team.
 
Devon Navaroli scored five points for The Rock with a fourth place finish in the 1,500-meter run after closing in 57 seconds over the last 400 meters to post a time of 3:56.58. Shannon Dooley clocked a season-best of 1:54.05 in the 800-meter run to place seventh to cap the top efforts of the distance runners Saturday.
 
Taye Lynch scored five points in the triple jump with a fourth place finish and a leap of 14.34 meters to round out the point scorers on Saturday.
 
Saturday marked the end of the season for most of The Rock roster with the exception of those athletes that have national qualifying marks. The NCAA will announce the accepted entries for the National Championships Tuesday evening. Dalton Anderson is likely to earn a spot in the javelin as he entered this weekend ranked No. 7 in Division II. John Eakin currently ranks No. 13 in the shot put and Jason Goodman is No. 15 in the decathlon with results still coming in from this weekend's conference championship meets. The decathlon field at nationals is likely to be 16 total entries, while the other individual events will be filled with 20-24 individuals.
 
The National Championships will take place May 26-28 at Grand Valley State University.
 
A look at all of the SRU results from Saturday can be found below. For recaps from the first two days, check out these links: Thursday Recap | Friday Recap.
 
SRU RESULTS – DAY THREE
 
100-Meter Dash Finals
2. AJ Virata – 10.82 (8 points)
 
200-Meter Dash
2. AJ Virata – 21.72 (8 points)
 
800-Meter Finals
7. Shannon Dooley – 1:54.05 (2 points)
 
1,500-Meter Run Finals
4. Devon Navaroli – 3:56.58 (5 points)
 
5,000-Meter Finals
17. Troy Hart – 15:32.13
20. Benjamin Buckless – 15:44.42
21. Ethan Brentham – 15:45.37
 
110-Meter Hurdle Finals
2. Brenden Lewis – 14.91 (8 points)
 
4x400-Meter Relay Finals – 3:25.99
11. Cade Adams, Jason Goodman, Marcus Pruy, Kyle Adams
 
Pole Vault Finals
1. Dan Hyatt – 4.65m (10 points)
5. Cameron Cowder – 4.35m (4 points)
T8. Jason Goodman – 4.20m (0.5 points)
 
Triple Jump Finals
4. Taye Lynch – 14.34m (5 points)
9. Zack Duda – 13.90m
 
Shot Put Finals
1. John Eakin – 17.95m (NCAA Provisional, SRU record, 10 points)
3. Joshua Gose – 16.52m (6 points)
11. Eric Schulz – 14.43m
 
Javelin Throw
1. Dalton Anderson – 65.44m (NCAA provisional, 10 points)
4. Dylan Close – 58.49m (NCAA provisional, 5 points)
16. Josh Kingerski – 52.00m



To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).