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BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's cross country team won its first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship since 1995 with a dominant victory Saturday at the 2023 PSAC XC Championships hosted by Bloomsburg University.
 
The Rock put all five of their scorers in the top 19 positions to easily run away with the team title with a final score of 59 points. Bloomsburg was more than double that total in a distant second place with 125 points. Defending champion Edinboro took third with 138 points, followed by East Stroudsburg in fourth with 141 points and Shippensburg in fifth with 145 points to round out the top five.

The victory marks just the third PSAC title for The Rock women's cross country team and the first since 1995.  

A total of 18 complete teams tallied a score and 171 individuals finished the 6,000-meter course.
 
All five of Slippery Rock's scorers came away with All-PSAC honors with Anna Igims, Ruthie Hughes and Chelsea Hunt all picking up first team All-PSAC honors and Katie Plassio and Maddie Grillo each earning second team honors. The top 15 are named to the first team, while finishers 16-30 are named as second team honorees.
 
In addition to the team trophy and five All-PSAC individual awards, SRU also took home the top academic prize Saturday when Steph Keelon was named the PSAC Champion Scholar award winner for owning the highest GPA of all athletes competing at the meet. Keelon owns a perfect 4.0 GPA after more than 140 credit hours as an early childhood and special education major at SRU.   
 
Igims led the way for SRU with a third place finish after covering the course in 22:30. It marked her third career All-PSAC award in cross country, but her first time being named to first team honors for finishing inside the top 15.
 
Hughes followed eighth place in 23:26 to pick up her first career All-PSAC award after placing 36th at the 2022 championships.
 
SRU's emergence as the top team in the PSAC this year didn't involve bringing in new runners, but rather seeing significant improvements from returning athletes. That was evident with Hunt, who finished in 12th place in 23:46 to earn her first career All-PSAC award. What's remarkable is that Hunt finished in 92nd place at the 2022 championships. Her jump of 80 positions in the standings sparked the victory.
 
Plassio was the fourth scorer for SRU and picked up her second career All-PSAC honor with a 17th place finish in 24:06. Her previous career-high in three other appearances was 26th. Plassio improved every year of her career, going from 66th in 2020 to 38th in 2021 to 26th in 2022 to 17th this year.

Like Hunt, The Rock's fifth scorer is also a story of a remarkable improvement. Maddie Grillo took 19th Saturday in 24:08 to earn her first career postseason award. Grillo was 117th at the 2022 PSAC meet, moving up 98 places from last fall to this fall and putting an emphatic cap on The Rock's win.
 
Madison Murtland was 41st in 24:51 and Lexie Wyant was 56th in 25:11 to round out the top seven finishers for SRU.
 
The Rock will now shift their focus to attempting to qualify for the National Championships as a team. SRU entered this week ranked No. 2 in the latest Atlantic Region rankings. The top three teams at the Atlantic Region Championships Nov. 4 at Lock Haven will earn team trips to nationals.
 
SRU RESULTS – PSAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
3. Anna Igims – 22:30 (1st team All-PSAC)
8. Ruthie Hughes – 23:26 (1st team All-PSAC)
12. Chelsea Hunt – 23:46 (1st team All-PSAC)
17. Katie Plassio – 24:06 (2nd team All-PSAC)
19. Maddie Grillo – 24:08 (2nd team All-PSAC)
41. Madison Murtland – 24:51
56. Lexie Wyant – 25:11
78. Jennifer Cichra – 25:41
82. Morgan Dennison – 25:54
116. Sydney Pitcovich – 26:39
122. Marie Scarpa – 26:52
139. Lizzie Higgins – 27:23
 
PSAC CHAMPION SCHOLAR
Steph Keelon (4.0 GPA, 144 credit hours)



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