SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Drew Layton won the pole vault to lead the Slippery Rock University men's track & field team into second place in the team standings after day two of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships wrapped up Friday evening from The Rock's William Lennox Track.
 
East Stroudsburg stacked up 23 points in the long jump and 12 in the discus throw to move into first place in the team standings after seven of the 21 events with 61.5 points. Slippery Rock grabbed 22.5 points in the pole vault to move into second place with 58.5 points. Defending champion Shippensburg will enter the final day of the meet in third with 45 points, followed by Lock Haven in fourth with 28 points and Kutztown in fifth with 17 points. A total of 12 teams have scored points over the first seven events.
 
Layton led The Rock Friday when he claimed his first career outdoor title in the pole vault with a season-best and NCAA provisional clearance of 5.15 meters, a height that is likely to send him to the national meet for the second year in a row. He led a foursome of SRU scorers in the event with Dan Hyatt also earning All-PSAC honors in third place at 4.96 meters. Logan Gossard took fourth at 4.81 meters and Bradon Schneider tied for seventh with a mark of 4.51 meters.
 
SRU also got one other All-PSAC performance Friday with Ryan Oleksy recording a career-best and NCAA provisional throw of 50.59 meters to place third in the discus. Seaton Wozniak took sixth at 47.65 meters and Andrew Demko was seventh at 47.06 meters to give SRU 11 points in the discus.
 
The Rock picked up 10 points in the decathlon after the deepest and most impressive decathlon in PSAC history. Logan Anderson and Zack Duda both tallied bests and NCAA marks with Anderson placing fourth with a score of 6,949 points and Duda placing fifth with a score of 6,729 points. Two men went over 7,000 points in the competition and six men finished with 6,700 points or more. Ethan Folmer grabbed the final point with an eighth place finish with a score of 5,894 points.
 
Slippery Rock closed the day Friday by scoring five more points in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with John Juszynski finishing fourth with a time of 9:28.22.
 
The other events contested Friday included the preliminary rounds for the track events at 800 meters and down and Slippery Rock shined in those prelims in a big way, tallying a pair of school records and a trio of No. 1 qualifying times.
 
The 4x100-meter relay team of Benny Whitaker, AJ Virata, Matthew Crow and Kanye Thompson set the tone for the day when they clocked the fastest time in the prelims at 40.73 seconds.
 
Thompson and Virata then blazed down the track to set SRU records in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Thompson ran the fastest recorded time in PSAC history in the 100-meter prelims at 10.21 seconds, but the wind reading was just above the 2.0 m/s international standard used for major records, so the mark will not count as the all-time PSAC record. It will however count for the SRU record as Slippery Rock uses the NCAA qualification standard of wind readings at 3.9 and below. Thompson topped his own record of 10.27 seconds that was set at last year's PSAC meet. That mark currently ranks 10th among all Division II athletes this spring.
 
Virata, who also took third in the 100m prelims in 10.42 seconds, followed that up by crushing his own record in the 200-meter dash with the fastest recorded time in PSAC history at 20.89 seconds. Just like Thompson, that record will not count for the all-time PSAC mark because of the wind reading, but it will count for the SRU record and the NCAA leaderboard. It marked the second time in his career that Virata has dipped below 21.00 seconds.
 
Crow also tallied the No. 4 time in the prelims of the 110-meter hurdles at 14.63 seconds, while The Rock put a pair of 400-meter hurdlers into the finals with Cade Adams posting the No. 5 prelim time (55.42) and Owen Rindler posting the No. 7 mark (55.84).
 
The final 14 events of the competition will take place Saturday beginning with field events at 11 a.m. and track events at 12:30 p.m. Live video feeds for every event will be available on the Rock Athletics Digital Network. Links for live video, event replays, thousands of photos, results and more can be found on the Championship Central Page.
 
SRU RESULTS – FRIDAY
 
3,000-METER STEEPLECHASE FINAL
4. John Juszynski – 9:28.22 (5 points)
9. Michael Gauntner – 9:49.44
14. Easton Adamczyk – 10:03.32
18. Eli Schreiber – 10:14.46
 
POLE VAULT FINAL
1. Drew Layton – 5.13m (All-PSAC, 10 points)
3. Dan Hyatt – 4.96m (All-PSAC, 6 points)
4. Logan Gossard – 4.81m (5 points)
7. Bradon Schneider – 4.51m (1.5 points)
9. Andy Huynh – 4.51m
11. Scott Finch – 4.36m
 
LONG JUMP FINAL
12. Jack Thomas – 6.73m
16. Logan Anderson – 6.56m
 
DISCUS FINAL
3. Ryan Oleksy – 50.59m (All-PSAC, 6 points)
6. Seaton Wozniak – 47.65m (3 points)
7. Andrew Demko – 47.06m (2 points)
13. Logan Parker – 43.89m
15. Zach Gose – 42.68m
16. Joshua Gose – 42.60m
 
DECATHLON FINAL
4. Logan Anderson – 6,949 points (5 points)
5. Zack Duda – 6,729 points (4 points)
8. Ethan Folmer – 5,894 points (1 point)
10. Jacob Stucchio – 5,594 points
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100-METER DASH PRELIMS
1. Kanye Thompson – 10.21 (SRU record, qualified for finals) +2.3 wind
3. AJ Virata – 10.42 (qualified for finals)
15. Nicholas Hartwick – 10.83
17. Benny Whitaker – 10.99
 
200-METER DASH PRELIMS
1. AJ Virata – 20.89 (SRU record, qualified for finals) +3.0 wind
13. Kyle Rauchut – 21.54
18. Nicholas Hartwick – 21.79
20. Jacob Thompson – 22.24
 
400-METER DASH PRELIMS
12. Kadin Johnson – 49.44
15. Micah Good – 50.02
19. Trey Huha – 51.14
 
4x100-METER RELAY PRELIMS – 40.73 (qualified for finals)
1. Benny Whitaker, AJ Virata, Matthew Crow, Kanye Thompson
 
110-METER HURDLE PRELIMS
4. Matthew Crow – 14.63 (qualified for finals)
 
400-METER HURDLE PRELIMS
5. Cade Adams – 55.42 (qualified for finals)
7. Owen Rindler – 55.84 (qualified for finals)
11. Darien Malawi – 57.23
12. Matthew Crow – 57.44
 
 


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