Selinsgrove, PA – The Penn State Harrisburg men's and women's indoor track team competed in just their second ever contest Friday January 16th at the Susquehanna University Indoor Orange and Maroon Classic. Both teams showed definite improvement from their first outing with Joey Phifer (Union, N.J / Union) claiming the honor of the night with his first place finish in the 800 meter dash.
On the women's side, the Blue and White showed tremendous improvement from their first outing. Rosaline Osibodu (Harrisburg, Pa. / Sci Tech) jumped 4.28m in the women's long jump for a tenth place finish.
The Lions Ashley Williams claimed a second place victory with her 9.68 run in the 60m hurdles finishing just .03 seconds behind the leader Erica Filipovits. Kaitlin Gould (Camp Hill, Pa. / Cedar Cliff) also claimed a second place prize with her 3.05m clearance in the pole vault.
As for the men, the highlight of the day was Joey Phifer's first place finish in the 800m. Teammate Korey Chritian (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y / Walter Panas) boasted an eighth place finish in the 200m. Sophomore James Keith (Philadelphia, Pa / Imhotep Institute) finished in fifth place in the 400m in the top spot for Penn State Harrisburg.
The Lions also performed very well in the 4x400m relay where they took home a second place finish. Phifer, Edgar Makimoto(Middleburg, Pa. / Selinsgrove),Josiah Owhe (Westbury, N.Y. / Westbury), and Charles Scheick (Doughlassville, Pa / Daniel Boone) finished with a time of 3:32.99.
Coach Danielle Lynch had this to say following the meet Friday evening: "Our team came back from the holiday break with some serious goals. Our hope to qualify more athletes to our conference championship and get on the top ten list for CAC was accomplished. Josiah Owhe is now ranked 10th in the conference with a qualifying time of 7.25 for 60m. While James Keith and Charles Scheick has not met the qualifying standard they are rank 5th and 6th for 400m in the conference with performances of 53.56 and 53.97 respectively. Joesph Phifer leads the conference in the 800m and was our sole winner at the meet. Joey went head to head against York College's and CAC ranked #2 and 3 and beat them out right with a time of 2:00.06. Our Men's 4x4oom relay team improved their qualifying seed and beat York College ranking them #2 in the CAC.
On the women's side, Katlin Gould placed second in the women's pole vault with a vault of 3.05. This ranks her second in the CAC. Ashley Williams placed second in the 60m hurdles beating out #2 ranked York hurdler with a time of 9.68. This ranks her 4th in the CAC. Erin Goodyear put the shot to a CAC #5 ranking.
We are well on our way for our first CAC competition."
With all these improvements after just two meets, the future looks very bright for the first year track and field team. Penn State Harrisburg will be back in action January 24th, when they travel to Lebanon Valley College to compete in the Dutchman Invite.