SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - Shippensburg University's Tommy Crum Jr. was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Men's Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday afternoon by the league office.
 
Crum Jr. shattered the all-time PSAC record in the 1,500 meters on Saturday night at the Bison Outdoor Classic, running 3:43.93 amidst perfect twilight conditions at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
 
It is the second conference record of the 2025-26 campaign for Crum Jr., who broke the all-time PSAC indoor record in the mile back in February. He 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.
 
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. 
 
It was Crum Jr.'s fifth collegiate outdoor 1,500-meter race and a personal best of more than eight seconds, as he obliterated his old PR of 3:51.92 set in April 2024 at William & Mary.
 
Crum Jr. now ranks 15th on the NCAA Division II national performance list.
 
It is the first career weekly outdoor award for Crum Jr. and the second of the season for Shippensburg, as sprinter Gabriel Lewis was honored last week.
 
Overall, it is the fifth weekly award of Crum's career; he was recognized twice during the 2026 indoor season (Feb. 2 and Feb. 16) and has previously earned two PSAC weekly awards in cross country (Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025).