LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -- Slippery Rock University head track and field coach John Papa has been named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Women’s Coach of the Year, as selected by the league’s head coaches and announced Friday.

Papa, who earned the PSAC and Atlantic Region’s top women's coaching honors during the indoor season and earned the Atlantic Region women's award this outdoor season, adds the PSAC outdoor honor after guiding The Rock women to their fourth consecutive conference Championship, a top regional ranking and a fifth-place finish in the final NCAA Division II national poll.

The honor is the 15th PSAC Coach of the Year award bestowed upon Papa during his 22 years at the helm of the program and matches his 15 Regional Coach of the Year honors for a combined 30 top coaching awards in his career.

The Rock women closed the 2009 season with eight athletes being accepted to compete in the NCAA Division II National Championships. The foursome of Tiffany Tedesco, Lacey Cochran, Amanda Seigworth and Allison Smith wrapped up the National Championships by becoming the first relay team in Papa’s coaching career to earn All-America honors, placing seventh in the 4x400-meter relay and setting a school record in the process.

Under Papa, six Rock athletes posted marks in the top-ten in Division II this season, including five school records by Whitney Hendershot (high jump), Jenn Harpp (10,000m), Cochran (400m),  Laura Mucho (3,000-meter steeplechase) and the 4x400m relay.