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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University men's track & field team sits in first place in the team standings after Sunday's opening day of competition at the 2024 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Indoor Championships from Lehigh University's Rauch Fieldhouse.
 
The Rock men tallied 44.5 points Sunday in the first five event finals of the two-day competition and will head into the final day of action with a 1.5-point lead on 12-time defending champion Shippensburg, which sits second with 43 points. With the Raiders depth in the remaining events, they are still the heavy favorites going into Monday, but SRU had a strong first day to possibly narrow the gap. Kutztown sits third with 28 points, followed by Lock Haven with 18 points and East Stroudsburg with 16. A total of 11 teams picked up at least one point Sunday.
 
Slippery Rock had a stellar opening day that started with a bang when Bryan Dworek won the PSAC title in the long jump in the first event of the day. The Rock would finish the day with one title, one school record and three All-PSAC finishers.
 
Dworek kicked things off by earning his second straight indoor title in the long jump with a season-best leap of 7.18 meters. He entered the event seeded sixth, but needed only one jump to keep his throne after his first attempt of 7.18 meters stood as the best mark for the entire competition.
 
The second highlight of the day came in the prelims of the 60-meter hurdles when Matthew Crow broke the program record with a time of 8.16 seconds to post the No. 2 qualifying time for Monday's finals. His effort topped the former SRU record of 8.18 seconds that was set by Ian Nieves in 2017.
 
The Rock closed the meet with a bang by placing four athletes in the top seven spots in the pole vault to score 20.5 points in the event. Dan Hyatt tied for first place with a career-best effort of 4.96 meters, but lost on a jump-off to Kutztown's Joe Jardine who matched Hyatt with the same height and exact number of misses. Hyatt was denied a third straight indoor title, but picked up an All-PSAC finish and eight points in second place. Bradon Schneider and Drew Layton both cleared 4.86 meters to place third and fourth and Andy Huynh cleared 4.46 meters to tie for seventh.
 
SRU also scored in each of the other three event finals that were contested Sunday, picking up seven points in the weight throw, five points in the 5,000-meter run and two points in the distance medley relay.
 
Zach Gose led the way in the weight throw with a fourth place finish and a toss of 16.62 meters. Joshua Rohland took seventh with a throw of 15.68 meters.
 
Troy Hart led the way in the 5,000-meter run with a fifth place showing in 15:16.57. Ethan Brentham surged on the last lap to secure the final scoring spot in eighth place in 15:31.81.
 
The final points for SRU on the opening day came from the DMR of Ryan Corbitt, Tyler Morosky, Brady Hoffman and Joseph Cintavey, which teamed together to take seventh in 10:38.64.
 
The rest of the action Sunday included the first four events of the seven-event heptathlon, where SRU had four men in action. Zack Duda will enter the final three events Monday sitting in third place with a score of 2,757 points. Duda won the high jump, was second in the shot put and fourth in the 60-meter dash to highlight his first day of action. Gavin Thomas sits sixth with 2,640 points after taking second in the long jump and third in the shot put Sunday. Ethan Folmer is ninth with 2,512 points and Kyle Adams is 12th with 2,292 points.
 
In addition to the five finals and the opening day of the heptathlon, the rest of Sunday's action featured preliminary rounds on the track to set up Monday finals. The Rock qualified at least one runner for the finals in every preliminary round Sunday.
 
Crow had the highlight of the day with his school record in the 60-meter hurdles and will be the No. 2 seed in the finals Monday, just 0.04 seconds off the top time.
 
Slippery Rock did manage to post the No. 1 prelim time in both the short sprints Sunday with Kanye Thompson and AJ Virata both having strong days. Thompson blazed to a career-best of 6.81 seconds in the prelims of the 60-meter dash with Virata following in 6.91 seconds, good enough for the No. 4 seed in Monday's final. Virata then came back to close his day by posting the No. 1 time in the prelims of the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.10 seconds.
 
The final qualifier for SRU Sunday was Jacob Thompson, who earned the final qualifying spot for the finals of the 400-meter run with the No. 8 time of 50.83 seconds.
 
The remaining 12 event finals will be contested Monday with competition set to begin with the heptathlon at 11:30 a.m. The final event of the meet is expected to take place around 3:40 p.m. Live video will be available HERE and live results will be available HERE.
 
SRU RESULTS – PSAC CHAMPIONSHIPS DAY 1
 
LONG JUMP FINAL
1. Bryan Dworek – 7.18m (10 points, NCAA provisional, All-PSAC)
 
POLE VAULT FINAL
2. Dan Hyatt – 4.96m (8 points, NCAA provisional, All-PSAC)
3. Bradon Schneider – 4.86m (6 points, NCAA provisional, All-PSAC)
4. Drew Layton – 4.86m (5 points, NCAA provisional)
t7. Andy Huynh – 4.46m (1.5 points)
 
WEIGHT THROW FINAL
4. Zach Gose – 16.62m (5 points)
7. Joshua Rohland – 15.68m (2 points)
15. Joshua Gose – 13.67m
 
5,000-METER RUN FINAL
5. Troy Hart – 15:16.57 (4 points)
8. Ethan Brentham – 15:31.81 (1 point)
13. John Juszynski – 15:40.76
 
DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY FINAL – 10:38.64
7. Ryan Corbitt, Tyler Morosky, Brady Hoffman, Joseph Cintavey
 
HEPTATHLON FIRST DAY SCORES (Through 4 of 7 Events)
3. Zack Duda – 2,757 points
6. Gavin Thomas – 2,640 points
9. Ethan Folmer – 2,512 points
12. Kyle Adams – 2,292 points
 
60-METER DASH PRELIMS
1. Kanye Thompson – 6.81 (NCAA provisional, qualified for finals)
4. AJ Virata – 6.91 (qualified for finals)
 
200-METER DASH PRELIMS
1. AJ Virata – 22.10 (qualified for finals)
 
400-METER DASH PRELIMS
8. Jacob Thompson  - 50.83 (qualified for finals)
10. Kyle Rauchut – 50.89
18. Kadin Johnson – 52.54
 
60-METER HURDLE PRELIMS
2. Matthew Crow – 8.16 (SRU record, NCAA provisional, qualified for finals)
12. Darien Malawi – 8.74
14. Jonathan Wess – 8.82
– Brenden Lewis (false start)
 


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