SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University will host more than 500 track and field athletes from 15 different colleges Thursday at the John Papa Invitational at the William Lennox Track at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
 
LOGISTICS
- Date: Thursday, April 17
- Time: Competition begins at noon
- Location: Slippery Rock University – Slippery Rock, Pa.
- Facility: William Lennox Track at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium
 
MEET INFO
- Meet Schedule (PDF)
- Performance List
 
LIVE COVERAGE
- Live Results (provided by Wolf Creek Timing Company)
 
COLLEGE TEAMS COMPETING
Allegheny, Carnegie Mellon, Clarion, Edinboro, Geneva, Indiana (Pa.), Kent State-Trumbull, Lake Erie, Mount Union, Pitt.-Johnstown, Penn State-Behrend, Slippery Rock, West Liberty, Westminster (Pa.), Youngstown State.
 
MEET STATS
- 29 total teams counting men and women's teams
- 15 different colleges represented
- 547 unique athletes entered
- 899 total entries
- Teams from NCAA Division I, Division II and Division III
- More than 120 SRU athletes set to compete (68 men, 55 women)
 
PSAC/NCAA QUALIFYING STANDARDS
• 2025 Qualifying Standards
• PSAC Performance List
• NCAA DII Performance List
 
ABOUT THE JOHN PAPA INVITATIONAL
This meet is named after legendary Slippery Rock track & field coach John Papa, who served as head coach of the cross country and track & field programs at Slippery Rock for more than 35 years. Papa, who is in the Rock Athletics Hall of Fame on the merits of his athletic career, was also an All-American in the decathlon at Slippery Rock in the late 1970s and helped lead The Rock to the 1979 NCAA Division III Men's Track & Field National Championship. That title remains the only NCAA team championship in any sport in SRU history. Papa retired in June of 2022 after leading The Rock to 25 PSAC titles and 32 conference runner-up finishes. He oversaw 12 individual national champions, 127 NCAA Division II All-Americans and 345 individual and relay conference champions during his tenure.
 
SLIPPERY ROCK MEN'S TEAM UPDATE
The Rock men enter the weekend with 11 performances that have met the NCAA provisional standard this spring, including six marks that currently rank in the top 25 nationally.
 
Seaton Wozniak is the highest-ranked SRU athlete with his shot put mark of 17.82 meters currently sitting eighth in the nation. Joshua Gose also has the NCAA standard in the shot put with his mark of 16.74 meters ranked No. 28. His brother Zach Gose has the NCAA mark in the hammer throw with a toss of 57.58 meters ranked No. 24. Josh Kingerski and Joseph Reed both have the NCAA standard in the javelin to give SRU five NCAA marks in the throws. Kingerski ranks 43rd at 60.11 meters with Reed ranked 47th at 59.47 meters.
 
Logan Anderson is the second-highest ranked individual with his decathlon score of 6,591 points ranked No. 16 nationally. Zack Duda is also in the top 25 at No. 25 with his score of 6,461 points. Pole Vaulters Drew Layton and Dan Hyatt round out the field event athletes with NCAA marks. Layton sits No. 20 with a clearance of 4.95 meters and Hyatt is No. 26 at 4.85 meters.
 
Matthew Crow has the lone individual NCAA mark on the track with his 110-meter hurdle time of 14.36 seconds ranked No. 34. Kanye Thompson would be No. 10 in the 100-meter dash, but his time of 10.27 seconds last week came with a wind reading that was just above the legal limit. Thompson and Crow also joined with Benny Whitaker and AJ Virata to post the No. 16 time in the country in the 4x100-meter relay with their SRU record of 40.50 seconds.
 
SLIPPERY ROCK WOMEN'S TEAM UPDATE
Slippery Rock enters the weekend with four marks that have met the NCAA standard, including two that rank in the top 10 and four that rank in the top 30.
 
Anna Igims, who will not race Thursday, currently sits No. 2 in the nation in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with her SRU record of 10:19.02. She also ranks No. 10 in the nation in the 5,000-meter run with her SRU record of 16:38.85. Igims is the only male or female track athlete from the PSAC to rank in the top 10 nationally in any event on the track.
 
Ruthie Hughes currently ranks 24th nationally in the 10,000-meter run with her time of 35:48.09, while Isabella Bartoletti is 27th nationally in the javelin with a throw of 42.64 meters.
 
The Rock women have also seen some other stellar performances this year that have fallen just short of the NCAA standards. Samantha Gilbert broke the SRU record in the 200-meter dash (24.60) last week and currently ranks No. 1 in the PSAC in the 100-meter dash (11.83) and No. 2 in the 200m. Gilbert, Regan Johnson, Layne Miller and Jianna Long also rank No. 1 in the PSAC in the 4x100-meter relay (47.12), while Long ranks No. 2 in the league in the 400-meter dash (56.21).
 
SRU's throwers own three of the top four marks in the PSAC in the shot put with Sarah Corrie ranked No. 1 (13.64 meters), Becca Martin ranked No. 2 (13.29m) and Olivia Heckman ranked No. 4 (12.97m).
 
RECAP AND RESULTS
Recaps and results will be posted to www.RockAthletics.com Thursday night at the conclusion of the meet. Results will be posted to the track & field schedule pages and to the SRU Hosted Events Page as soon as possible after the conclusion of the meet.
 
UP NEXT
Slippery Rock will split its teams to three different meets again next week with eight athletes competing at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia Thursday and Friday, most of the SRU athletes competing Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University and the sprinters competing Saturday at Ashland University.




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