By: Emma Monismith and Bill Morgal, SU Sports Information
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University men's cross country team begins the 2024 season Friday when it hosts the Galen Piper Cross Country Challenge.
Schedule
The men's team is slated to run at 8 p.m. tonight under the lights. It will then compete at the Division II Challenge hosted by Kutztown on Friday, Sept. 13. The Raiders have two more regular season races: the Long-Short Invitational hosted by Dickinson and the 50th Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh.
The PSAC Championships will be hosted by Kutztown on Saturday, Oct. 26. Regionals will be held at Lock Haven on Saturday, Nov. 9.
Roster
Shippensburg enters the 2024 season with 13 athletes. SU returns eight runners from its 2023 fall roster. New to the mix are four first-year recruits and one transfer.
Two runners are seniors in 2024, as
Aiden Gonder and graduate student
Ian Sherlock are in their final season of eligibility.
From an athletic eligibility perspective, the team has two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores, and six freshmen.
Coaching Staff
Steve Spence returns for his 26th season at Shippensburg University's head coach. Assistant coach
Dave Osanitsch is back for his 22nd season, while graduate students Sadie Hostler and
Kevin Wagner will assist the squad.
Notes
Shippensburg returns its Top 3 scorers from its PSAC Championship team last year, all of whom finished among the league's Top 4, and four of its five scoring runners from the NCAA Atlantic Region Championships.
The 2023 PSAC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year, junior
Garrett Quinan, claimed the individual championship title last season (25:58.23). Quinan is a two-time NCAA All-Atlantic Region runner (fifth last season, 23rd in 2022) and a two-time All-PSAC First Team runner (sixth in 2022) who capped off last season by running 66th at the NCAA National Championships to lead the Raiders.
Gonder is a four-time All-PSAC runner (second last season, 14th in 2022, 13th in 2021, 26th in 2020-21), who has earned First Team honors in each of the last three seasons. He finished six seconds behind Quinan at the PSAC Championships last season. Gonder is also a two-time All-Region runner (sixth last season, 25th in 2022).
Junior
Ryan Wolfe was not only fourth at the conference meet last season, but he also earned All-Region honors last season as SU's No. 4 runner in the race (18th overall).
Sherlock earned All-Region honors last season with a 21st-place finish as SU's No. 5 runner. He is a two-time All-PSAC performer, having earned First Team honors in 2020-21 (13th place) and Second Team honors in 2021 (29th place).
Shippensburg has won four PSAC Championships: 2010, 2016, 2017 and 2023.
Shippensburg has qualified for 22 NCAA National Championships appearances; last year marked the first for the Raiders since 2018.
Home Breakdown
Pennsylvania (13)
Kyle Baker (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim)
Jaycen Conrad (Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown Area)
Tommy Crum Jr. (Carlisle, Pa./Boiling Springs)
Ben Devine (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg (Marywood))
Aiden Gonder (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Red Land)
Jackson Gutekunst (York, Pa./Dallastown)
Nathan Kluge (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga)
Garrett Quinan (Stewartstown, Pa./Kennard-Dale)
Ian Sherlock (Hopewell, Pa./Northern Bedford County)
Owen Shrader (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg Area)
Ramon Urena (Lebanon, Pa./Lebanon)
Brennan Wellock (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West)
Ryan Wolfe (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest)
