PSAC Championship Homepage  |  Women's Preview

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – A total of 16 men's cross country teams, including nine of the top 10 ranked teams in the Atlantic Region, will come together Saturday at Slippery Rock's Cooper's Lake Campground course for the 2015 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships.
 
The Rock will serve as hosts of the annual championship meet for the first time since 2012.
 
HOMEPAGE
A meet homepage has been established to provide all pertinent information about the championship in one location. The page, linked above, includes directions, course maps, course records, previous results, rosters and more.
 
SCHEDULE
10 a.m. - Women's 6,000-meter Race
11 a.m. - Men's 8,000-meter Race
Noon (or slightly before) - Awards ceremony
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The SRU athletic communication office will provide live updates, results and photos through the PSAC Track and Field Twitter account (@PSACTF) throughout the race. Updates will be posted at each mile of the race and results will be posted as soon as they are available.
 
AWARDS
The top 15 individual finishers will be named first team All-PSAC, while finishers 16-30 will be named second team All-PSAC. A Champion Scholar winner will also be awarded at the meet with the winner owning the highest cumulative GPA of all competitors. The top two teams will be awarded team trophies.
 
TEAM TITLE PREVIEW  |  Atlantic Region Rankings

The men's race for the team title appears to be a two-horse race between nationally ranked Lock Haven and Shippensburg. The Bald Eagles are looking for their third straight title and enter the meet ranked ninth in the latest national poll. Shippensburg is looking for its first title since 2010 and enters the meet ranked 11th in the latest national poll. Expect to see large packs of LHU and Shippensburg runners near the front as both teams are capable of putting all five scorers in the top 30 overall positions.
 
Behind those two, Indiana is the third ranked team in the region and the only other team at least receiving votes in the latest national poll. The Crimson Hawks have a strong top four and will be looking to round out the podium. A strong challenge for the third spot in the team standings could come from the fourth and fifth ranked teams in the region in Edinboro and Slippery Rock, which has the benefit of knowing the course.
 
The top five teams in the region should separate themselves, but East Stoudsburg and Kutztown enter the meet ranked sixth and seventh and could also push for a top five finish. West Chester and California rank ninth and 10th in the region entering the weekend and will also be looking to improve on their status before the regional meet.

TOP 10 TEAMS FROM 2014
(Team, Points)
1. Lock Haven, 38
2. Shippensburg, 58
3. Edinboro, 86
4. Indiana, 101
5. California, 123
6. Slippery Rock, 138
7. East Stroudsburg, 222
8. Kutztown, 255
9. West Chester, 256
10. Bloomsburg, 299
 
TOP INDIVIDUALS
The men's race will feature 11 runners that placed in the top 20 at last year's championship, hosted on a much flatter course at Mansfield. The top three finishers from last year will not return, making way for Lock Haven's Dylan Mountain to make a run at the title. Mountain finished fourth last year and enters the meet as the favorite for individual honors having put together a strong fall season.
 
Mountain will have plenty of company pushing him for the title, including last year's fifth place finisher Elliott Martynkiewicz from Edinboro, who has also put together an impressive fall campaign. Mountain could benefit from having an incredibly strong team of training partners around him this fall, while Martynkiewicz has established himself as a front-runner for the Fighting Scots.
 
While Mountain and Martynkiewicz will enter the race as favorites, there's a host of other runners that will be looking to steal the glory away, including Shippensburg's Austin McGinley, who was eighth last year. His teammates Kieran Sutton, Alex Balla and Braden Bruning could all factor in the battle for the top five positions.
 
Lock Haven's Matt Guiod, Ben Robinson, Jacob Fetterman and Addison Monroe all placed in the top 20 last year and along with Alex Diltz have been running extremely well this season. Fetterman has competed just once, but the other four all have recorded sub-25:00 performances for 8,000-meters this fall.
 
Indiana's Alex Hampel and Ray Ofman were both in the top 14 last season and will be looking to break up the stronghold of Lock Haven and Shippensburg runners at the top end of the field. While they both bring experience, IUP teammates Austin Cooper and Greg Beaudette have challenged them for the top spot on the team this fall. Kutztown's Steve Main and Slippery Rock's Jeremy Parsons are also expected to factor into the race for first team All-PSAC honors (top 15 finishers).
 
TOP RETURNING FINISHERS FROM 2014
(Name, School, 2014 Finish)

Dylan Mountain, LHU, 4
Elliott Martynkiewicz, Boro, 5
Austin McGinley, Ship, 8
Matt Guiod, LHU, 9
Alex Hampel, IUP, 10
Ben Robinson, LHU, 12
Jacob Fetterman, LHU, 13
Ray Ofman, IUP, 14
Alex Diltz, LHU, 18
Steve Main, Kutz, 19
Addison Monroe, LHU, 20
Jeremy Parsons, SRU, 21

TOP CONTENDERS
Below is a look at some of the names expected to be near the front of the pack, as well as at least one individual expected to lead their respective team.
 
• Bloomsburg – Dan Neiswender
• California – Morgan Huegel, Gabe Rees
• Cheyney – Jovon Love
• East Stroudsburg – Alex Zubko, Steve Ruch
• Edinboro – Elliott Martynkiewicz, Logan Kempney, Jonathan Gusew
• Gannon – Bobby Danielson
• Indiana – Austin Cooper, Ray Ofman, Greg Beaudette, Alex Hampel
• Kutztown – Steve Maine, Xavier Gutierrez
• Lock Haven – Dylan Mountain, Addison Monroe, Ben Robinson, Matt Guiod, Alex Diltz
• Mansfield – Jesse Jones
• Mercyhurst – Jacob Eneix
• Pitt-Johnstown – Kyle Zenchak
• Seton Hill – Jerrod Sunderland
• Shippensburg – Kieran Sutton, Alex Balla, Braden Bruning, Calvin Conrad-Kline, Bernard England
• Slippery Rock – Jeremy Parsons, Ryan Thompson, Steve Green, Jeff Henderson, Theo Reynolds, Charlie Frank
• West Chester – Jake Siegel, Andrew Dombrowiecki
 
ALL-TIME CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
Only seven of the 16 PSAC programs have won a title in men's cross country, led by Edinboro with a dominant 29 total titles dating back to the first championship in 1958. The next closest is West Chester's eight titles, a number Lock Haven will try to tie this year. A look at all-time team winners is below.

29 - Edinboro
8 - West Chester
7 - Lock Haven
6 - Slippery Rock
5 - Indiana
1 - Shippensburg

RESULTS
Results will be posted to the homepage as soon as they are available.
 
PHOTO GALLERY
A photo gallery from the race will be available on the homepage within 2-3 days after the meet. Links to the galleries will be shared on the @PSACTF Twitter page when posted.