• Results

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (May 15) – The California University of Pennsylvania women's track & field team posted its best finish at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 25 years over the weekend by finishing sixth in the team standings.

The Vulcans established five new school records, provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championships in two events and graduate student Clare McSweeney (Cork, Ireland/St. Aloysius) automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships after winning the 800-meter run.

McSweeney became the first Cal U athlete to win an event since Danielle Malay won the 400-meter hurdles in 2008. A native of Ireland, McSweeney won the 800 meters with a new PSAC Championship record of 2 minutes, 8.75 seconds in the finals. She also broke her own school record by 1.38 seconds after also winning the preliminaries in 2:12.20.

The Vulcans also won their third-ever 4x400-meter relay and first since 1985. The relay of sophomores Shakeria Love (York, Pa./Central York), Sandy Estep (Fredericksburg, Va./Chancellor), Jerica Snedden (Carrolltown, Pa./Cambria Heights) and McSweeney won the 4x400 relay with a NCAA Championship provisional-qualifying time of 3:48.20, which is also a school record. The Cal U relay team won the event by only four-tenths second ahead of Shippensburg and four-time, event defending-champion Slippery Rock and broke the school record by 2.90 seconds.

As an individual, Love also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships and broke the 26-year old school record in the 400-meter dash. She finished fourth overall in the finals of the 400 meters with a time of 57.05 seconds after running a time of 56.59 seconds in the preliminaries. The previous school record of 56.82 seconds was set in 1984 by Benita Jones, who won the 400 meters at the 1984 and 1985 PSAC Championships. Love also established a personal record in the 200-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 26.15 seconds.

Graduate student Patsy Schreiber (Johnsonburg, Pa./Johnsonburg) reset her own school record in the hammer throw with a mark of 44.25 meters (145-2 feet) at the PSAC Championships. She finished eighth overall in 19-thrower event after breaking the previous school mark by 1.61 meters (5-3 feet). Also in the hammer throw, freshman Patriece Thompson (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) posted a season-best throw of 41.73 meters (136-11 meters).

Freshman Farath Raphael (Long Island, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East) established a new school-best total in the heptathlon and finished eighth in the event with 4,316 points. Highlighting her performance in the heptathlon was a second-place finish in the shot put with a mark of 11.41 meters (37-5 1/4 feet). Raphael also finished sixth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.76 seconds while competing in the heptathlon. Sophomore Khyalyani Whitaker (Pottsgrove, Pa./Pottsgrove), who set the heptathlon record last year, posted a career-best score of 4,100 points at the PSAC Championships behind a third-place finish in the high jump with a clearance of 1.60 meters (5-3 feet).

The 4x100-meter relay of Estep, Snedden, Love and freshman Yahnae Weldon (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) finished fifth overall in the finals with a season-best time of 49.11 seconds. As an individual, Snedden posted a fifth-place finish in the finals of the 800 meters with a time of 2:15.40 after registering a season-best time of 2:14.95 in the preliminaries. Estep also qualified for the finals in the 400 meters after crossing the finish line in 57.84 seconds in the preliminaries.

Freshman Erin Kling (Jamestown, N.Y./Jamestown) posted her fastest time of the season in the 1,500-meter run, finishing 11th overall with a time of 18:27.03.

Select members of the Vulcans will conclude their season when they compete at the 2010 NCAA Championships from May 27-29 in Charlotte, N.C.