By: Bill Morgal, sports information director
Tommy Crum Jr. shattered the all-time Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) record in the 1,500 meters and
Gian Greggo broke the school record in the shot put on a memorable Saturday for the Shippensburg University men's outdoor track & field team at the prestigious Bison Outdoor Classic held at Bucknell's prestigious Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
Crum Jr., who broke the all-time PSAC indoor record in the mile back in February, recorded the outdoor equivalent Saturday with a performance that was as stoic as it was impressive. After posting a split time of 1:45.14 through his opening 700 meters, Crum Jr. ran 60.72 seconds and 58.08 seconds in his remaining 400-meter splits to finish in 3:43.93.
First and foremost, Crum Jr. surpassed the PSAC record (3:45.62) by 1.7 seconds. That mark was set last season at the Bison Outdoor Classic by IUP's Mike Formica – which itself was a historic performance as it erased one of the longest standing league records on the books.
Prior to Formica's run last season, the PSAC's 1,500-meter record had been shared by Shippensburg Hall of Famer Gary Bicking and Edinboro's Carl Leonard. Bicking ran 3:45.64 at the 1980 NCAA Division II National Championships (to place third and earn All-America honors) while Leonard achieved the same time in 1995 with the Fighting Scots.
Bicking's 46-year-old school record was the oldest remaining on the Shippensburg University men's record books. That title (for longest standing SU record) now belongs to Crum Jr.'s distance coach – Raider Hall of Famer
Steve Spence – whose 5K record of 13:56.50 was set in 1984.
It was his fifth collegiate outdoor 1,500-meter race and a personal best of more than eight seconds, as Crum obliterated his old PR of 3:51.92 set in April 2024 at William & Mary (he redshirted the 2025 outdoor season due to injury).
The race also provided two more examples of the ever-increasing divide between the high end of NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III programs and performers and the remainder of the membership. The most notable is that Crum Jr.'s record-setting time ranks him 16th on the NCAA Division II national performance list and is by no means a lock to qualify him for the national championships in late May.
Saturday night's race was historic for multiple reasons, as its winner – SUNY Geneseo's Ryan Hagan – ran 3:38.67 to break the all-time NCAA Division III record in the 1,500 meters. Hagan's time is the fifth-fastest in all divisions this season.
Greggo, meanwhile, had been on the precipice of Grant Smith's school shot put record (58 feet, 10 inches [17.93 meters] in 2015) based on his performances of the last several weeks. Thus far in the outdoor season, Greggo had achieved throws of 57 feet, 11 inches (season opener), 58 feet, 2 inches (Lynchburg) and 58 feet, 0 ½ inches (George Mason) to establish his outdoor career bests.
The official breakthrough came on his first throw Saturday – a put of 59 feet, 8 ½ inches (18.20 meters) that now stands as the school record. The NCAA provisional qualifier puts him all the way up to No. 4 on the national performance list and should be enough to get him a trip to the national championships in late May.
It was the start of an incredible sequence for Greggo, who unleashed three 59-foot throws on the day (59 feet, 4 inches (18.08 meters) on his second attempt, 59 feet, 0 ¼ inches (17.99 meters) on his fourth attempt).
The majority of the Day 1 action was comprised of mid-distance and distance races – events for which the Bison Outdoor Classic draws a large number of entrants each year.
The races can last well into the evening, and the Saturday finale featured
Garrett Quinan toeing the line for the invitational section of the 10K that had a 10:20 p.m. start. Quinan took full advantage of the beneficial nighttime running conditions by virtually matching his PR in the event. Already ranked third in school history with a personal best 10K time of 29:37.68, Quinan ran 29:37.90 on Saturday night – closing with a 68-second and 63-second 400-meter split.
Earlier in the day, three Raiders ran in the unseeded section of the 1,500 meters and picked up new season bests.
Ben Hummel improved his time to 3:57.97, while
Jackson Gutekunst and
Brennan Wellock picked up their PSAC automatic qualifiers. Gutekunst ran 3:59.27, while Wellock crossed the finish line in 4:01.08.
Jaycen Conrad placed fourth in the unseeded section of the 5K and picked up his conference qualifier in the event with a huge PR of 15:09.09. It's an outdoor personal best of 45 seconds for Conrad, who is now the fifth Raider qualified for the conference meet in the 5K.
In the 800 meters,
Chase Hensinger completed his run in 1:52.67 – approximately three seconds off his PR pace last week at George Mason.
Davey Johnson improved his season best to 1:56.53 and was just three one-hundredths of a second short of the PSAC Championships automatic qualifying standard (1:56.50) in the event.
Other throws action included
Donovan Kitchen improving his season best in the discus by five feet with a fourth-place throw of 164 feet, 5 inches (50.12 meters) that puts him at No. 2 on the league leaderboard.
Among other field highlights were
Gilberto Raphael Ramos equaling his season best and the league standard in the pole vault with a clearance of 14 feet, 5 ¼ inches (4.40 meters) and
Josh Durika throwing the discus 149 feet, 5 inches (45.55 meters).
Competition resumes Sunday at 11 a.m.
800
Chase Hensinger 1:52.67 (PSAC)
Davey Johnson 1:56.53
1500 (Invitational)
6.
Tommy Crum Jr. 3:43.93 (NCAA 'P') (PSAC record) (SU record)
1500 (unseeded)
6.
Ben Hummel 3:57.97 (PSAC)
Jackson Gutekunst 3:59.27 (PSAC)
Brennan Wellock 4:01.08 (PSAC)
5K (Unseeded)
4.
Jaycen Conrad 15:09.09 (PSAC)
5K (Invitational)
No competitors
10K (Unseeded)
No competitors
10K (Invitational)
3.
Garrett Quinan 29:37.90 (NCAA 'P')
3K Steeplechase
No competitors
Pole Vault
6.
Gilberto Raphael Ramos 14' 5 ¼" (4.40m) (PSAC)
7.
Joe Ryan 13' 11 ¼" (4.25m)
Long Jump
Jak Kearney 22' 3 ½" (6.79m)
Shot
3.
Gian Greggo 59' 8 ½" (18.20m) (NCAA 'P') (SU record)
Discus
4.
Donovan Kitchen 164' 5" (50.12m) (PSAC)
Josh Durika 149' 5" (45.55m) (PSAC)
