SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Shippensburg University women's track & field team won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Outdoor Championships for the ninth consecutive year on Saturday – extending its league-record streak – and completing three days of competition by winning five events and totaling 26 individual place-winning performances.
 
Shippensburg totaled 156 points to achieve a 58-point victory margin. Millersville (98 points) finished second, its best finish since 1996, after winning the 4x400-meter relay. West Chester (94 points) was edged by the Marauders and settled for third place. Slippery Rock (81 points) and California (62.5 points) rounded out the Top 5.
 
Redshirt-senior Danielle Sciremammano was named the 2018 PSAC Outdoor Championships Most Valuable Athlete after winning conference championships in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump and contributing to an All-PSAC finish with the 4x100-meter relay. Sciremammano contributed 26 team points spanning the three events.
 
Shippensburg scored in 19 of the 22 events at the meet, only coming up short of a podium finish in the 200 meters, 800 meters and high jump. Twenty-five different athletes spanning individual events and relays contributed to the Raider team score this weekend. SU had multiple place-winners in nine events, including three place-winners Friday in the discus.
 
In addition to Sciremammano's two titles, senior Kiana Tucker won the 400 meters, senior Crystal Hartman won the javelin and redshirt-junior Abby Wagner won the triple jump.
 
A breakdown of some of the specific events is as follows:
 
SCIREMAMMANO WINS FIRST OUTDOOR HURDLES TITLE
After placing seventh as a freshman, third as a sophomore, and second as a junior, Sciremammano obtained an elusive PSAC Championship in the 100-meter hurdles on Saturday with a wire-to-wire victory in 13.71 seconds – a performance that is just one-hundredth of a second off the championship meet record set by IUP's Maddy Outman in 2010.
 
Sciremammano defeated East Stroudsburg's Aspen Gaita, the defending champion, by 0.25 seconds to claim the victory. She becomes SU's first 100-meter hurdles champion since Caitlin Stuetz in 2014.
 
Sciremammano's strong strides improved her PR and school record in the event and all but secured her another chance to run the hurdles, as she now ranks ninth on the NCAA Division II performance list for the event.
 
TUCKER CLOSES OUT 400 CAREER IN STYLE WITH PSAC TITLE
Tucker made the most of her final trip around the track in an individual race, claiming her first conference championship in the 400 meters and becoming the first Raider to win the event since Bri Fells in 2015. It is the third place-winning performance for Tucker in the 400, accompanying a seventh-place finish last year and a second-place finish in 2016.
 
She not only broke the 57-second mark for the first time in her collegiate career, but she did one better and broke the 56-second mark – running a tremendous time of 55.84 seconds to achieve a victory over defending champion Heather Sternby of IUP by two-tenths of a second. Tucker was especially strong in the middle of her race, maintaining a lead into the final 100 meters and staving off Sternby for the victory.
 
HARTMAN NAILS PR IN JAVELIN FOR FIRST PSAC TITLE
Hartman delivered a tremendous throws sequence in the javelin Saturday that featured a new personal best of 158 feet, 4 inches on her fifth attempt to claim her first PSAC Championship. All six of her throws at this year's championships traveled at least 148 feet – a distance she had yet to reach in a meet this season.
 
Saturday's championship marks a scoring performance in all four years in the javelin for Hartman, who placed second last season and fifth in both her freshman and sophomore seasons.
 
The throw also virtually guaranteed her third trip to the NCAA National Championships, as the 14-foot season best moved her from 19th to third on the national performance list with just one week of competition remaining.
 
WAGNER WINS FIRST TRIPLE JUMP CHAMPIONSHIP
Wagner posted a 40-foot triple jump for the third consecutive meet, with her Saturday best of 40 feet, 3 ½ inches securing her first career conference championship and extending SU's streak of champions in the event to four straight years as current assistant Sarah Hunt had won the event from 2015-17.
 
Wagner bested Cal's Kailah Holmes by seven inches and Bloomsburg's Kirsten O'Malley by nine inches – moving atop the standings on her fifth attempt after sitting third entering the finals. It is the third straight scoring performance for Wagner, who was the runner-up to Hunt last season and placed fifth in 2016.
 
HEPNER EXTENDS HER POLE VAULT RECORD WITH ALL-PSAC FINISH
Senior Kali Hepner finished second in the pole vault – her highest career place outdoors – while improving her own school record and PR by an inch. Hepner cleared 12 feet, 11 inches on her second attempt at the height to climb into a tie for ninth on the national performance list.
 
It marks the second outdoor scoring performance for Hepner, who finished fifth in 2016. League champion Courtney McQuaide of Slippery Rock cleared 13 feet, 3 inches on her second attempt to claim the league title. Hepner had been one ahead of McQuaide on misses with just two through her first four clearances until the Rock senior made her successful clearance.
 
RELAYS PERFORM ADMIRABLY FOR THE RAIDERS
Shippensburg got six points from its All-PSAC 4x100-meter relay that finished third in addition to five points from the fourth-place 4x400-meter relay. Three Raiders ran on both relays that served as bookends for the day's competition.  
 
Saturday's finals began with freshman Ali Wyland, Sciremammano, senior Lindsay Sheehan and senior Jill Bertino running 46.96 seconds – marking the second straight day and just the time in history that an SU 4x1 relay broke the 47-second mark.
 
The day concluded with freshman Rachel Bruno, Sheehan, Bertino and Tucker running 3:53.77.
 
KERR HAS INCREDIBLE BREAKTHROUGH IN SHOT PUT
Shippensburg boasts a reliable tendency over the years in which many of its athletes achieve breakthrough performances at the conference championships when it matters the most. One day after junior Ellie Fleegle crushed her personal best in the discus, freshman Ashley Kerr came through Saturday with a simply phenomenal afternoon in the shot put.

Kerr entered the day having broken the 40-foot mark just once in her collegiate career – with her best mark of the season (40 feet, 6 ¾ inches; 12.36 meters) achieved three weeks ago at home.
 
On Saturday, Kerr broke that PR on five of her six throws – with the best effort being a stupendous NCAA-provisional mark of 45 feet, 5 ¼ inches that resulted in a fourth-place finish. Kerr set the tone and established momentum with her first throw – 42 feet, 6 ½ inches – that preceded her new personal best.
 
PURNELL's PR PACES RAIDERS in 400 HURDLES
Junior Tatiana Purnell and sophomore Jordan Higgins each achieved their second career place-winning performances in the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday.
 
Purnell broke the 64-second mark for the first time in her collegiate career, running strong down the stretch to the tune of a fourth-place finish in 1:03.82. She placed seventh in the event in 2016. Purnell completed the weekend with PRs in both hurdles events, having run 15.31 seconds in the 100-meter prelims on Friday.
 
Higgins placed eighth in 1:06.65 to accompany a seventh-place finish in the event last season.
 
5K PLACEWINNERS PACE DISTANCE AND MID-DISTANCE SQUAD
Senior Bryanna Dissinger and redshirt-junior Caity Reese had each scored in a distance event at this year's conference meet and successfully doubled by posting their first career place-winning performances in the outdoor 5,000 meters on Saturday.
 
Dissinger ran fourth in 18:05.91 and Reese ran seventh in 18:12.98 for some key distance points for the Raiders. On Thursday, Reese placed fourth in the 10K. On Friday, Dissinger finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
 
Also on Saturday, freshman Isabella Marchini contributed to a pair of scoring efforts in her debut conference meet. Individually, Marchini placed sixth in the 1,500 meters as SU's lone entry in the event, running 4:33.36.
 
Marchini also anchored the 4x800-meter relay that placed eighth. The quartet of sophomore Sophia Carabba, sophomore Abby Lee, junior Laura Kibathi and Marchini ran 9:46.77. Lee and Marchini posted strong splits of 2:25, while Kibathi dazzled with a timed split of 2:22.9.
 
OTHER PLACEWINNERS
Junior Morgan DeFloria scored in the javelin for the third consecutive season with a fourth-place throw of 153 feet, 6 inches that is just five inches off her season best that has her ranked ninth in the nation. DeFloria won the javelin last year and placed second in 2016.
 
Freshman Ariel Jones notched seventh place in the triple jump, joining Wagner on the awards stand on the strength of a top mark of 37 feet, 4 ½ inches. Jones was rather consistent with her jumps, as her top three successful attempts were within a centimeter of each other.
 
Wyland notched her first individual scoring performance as a Raider with an All-PSAC performance in the 100 meters of 12.06 seconds. After breaking 12 seconds in Friday's prelims with a wind-aided time, Wyland surpassed the previous school record (12.10 seconds) for the fourth consecutive meet.
 
Joining Kerr on the awards stand in the shot put was redshirt-senior Paige Shirk, who placed sixth on a top mark of 42 feet, 9 inches. It is the second straight year Shirk scored in the shot put after an eighth-place finish last season.
 
SATURDAY FINALS
 
100
3. Ali Wyland 12.06
 
400
1. Kiana Tucker 55.84
 
1500
6. Isabella Marchini 4:43.36
 
5K
4. Bryanna Dissinger 18:05.91
7. Caity Reese 18:12.98
Lizzie Manickas 18:36.77
Lydia Cagle 18:37.75
Natalee Serwatka 18:41.11
 
100H
1. Danielle Sciremammano 13.71
 
400H
4. Tatiana Purnell 1:03.82
8. Jordan Higgins 1:06.65
 
4x100 Relay
3. Ali Wyland, Danielle Sciremammano, Lindsay Sheehan, Jill Bertino 46.96
 
4x400 Relay
4. Rachel Bruno, Lindsay Sheehan, Jill Bertino, Kiana Tucker 3:53.77
 
4x800 Relay
8. Sophia Carabba, Abby Lee, Laura Kibathi, Isabella Marchini 9:46.77
 
Pole Vault
2. Kali Hepner 12' 11" (3.94m)
Sarah Bourdon 11' 5 ¼" (3.49m)
 
Triple Jump
1. Abby Wagner 40' 3 ½" (12.28m)
7. Ariel Jones 37' 4 ½" (11.39m)
Olivia Lee 36' 7" (11.15m)
Alyssa Sitch 33' 6 ½" (10.22m)
 
Shot Put
4. Ashley Kerr 45' 5 ¼" (13.85m)
6. Paige Shirk 42' 9" (13.03m)
Ava Bonetti 41' 11 ¼" (12.78m)
Jackie Arthur 40' 11 ½" (12.48m)
Ellie Fleegle 39' 8 ¾" (12.11m)
 
Javelin
1. Crystal Hartman 158' 4" (48.25m)
4. Morgan DeFloria 153' 6" (46.79m)
Kelly Steffen 118' 10" (36.22m)
Jackie Arthur 114' 2" (34.79m)
 
FRIDAY FINALS
 
800
No entries
 
3000 Steeplechase
2. Bryanna Dissinger 11:11.56
Lindsey Gerlach 12:16.32
 
High Jump
Kali Dawson 5' 1 ¾" (1.57m)
 
Long Jump
1. Danielle Sciremammano 18' 7 ¼" (5.67m)
3. Abby Wagner 17' 11 ½' (5.47m)
Olivia Lee 16' 9 ¾" (5.12m)
Michelle Brown-Jones 16' 3" (4.95m)
 
Discus
3. Paige Shirk 146' 5" (44.64m)
6. Ellie Fleegle 136' 2" (41.50m)
7. Ava Bonetti 129' 11" (39.59m)
Jackie Arthur 117' 8" (35.86m)
Ashley Kerr 117' 1" (35.70m)
 
Heptathlon
2. Kali Dawson 4299
8. Erica Helm 3755
Stephanie Swartz 3665
 
THURSDAY FINALS
 
10K
4. Caity Reese 38:36.10
5. Natalee Serwatka 38:45.85
 
Hammer
3. Ava Bonetti 159' 10" (48.72m)
Paige Shirk 142' 10" (43.55m)
Ashley Kerr 135' 9" (41.37m)
Jackie Arthur ND