Bloomsburg Track Competes at Day One of the PSAC Championships

EAST STROUDSBURG - The Bloomsburg University men's and women's track teams competed at day one of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships held at East Stroudsburg University.

On the men's side, Greg McGhee (Philadelphia/Cheltenham) advanced to the finals of the 200-meter dash, an event that he won at the 2004 championships. McGhee won his heat in 22.79 and will compete in tomorrow's final.

In the men's 5000-meter final, 2005 Cross Country All-American Justin Shepherd (Cranberry Twp./Seneca Valley finished fifth in a time of 15:02.40, shaving 35 seconds off of his qualifying time. Mike Espinosa (Media/Penncrest) was the next Husky finisher, taking 15th place in 15:49.11.

The team of Dan Ezzi (Mechanicsburg/Mechanicsburg) , Jesse Motko (Long Pond/Pocono Mountain West) , Dan Tallarico (Pittsburgh/North Hills) , and Dave Sandford (Nescopeck/Central Columbia) finished eighth in the distance medley relay final in a time of 10:39.07.

On the women's side, Amber Hackenberg (Middleburg/Middleburg) , a 2005 NCAA Cross Country qualifier, placed fifth in the final of the 5,000-meters, running the event in 18:19.77. Hackenberg bested her qualifying time by nearly 40 seconds. In the same race, Mary Bacher (New Tripoli/Central Catholic) and Sarah Bounds (Shippensburg/Shippensburg) took eighth and ninth, respectively. Bacher finished in 18:56.20 while Bounds ran a 19:04.99.

In the women's distance medley final, the team of Kate Conlon (Inkerman/Pittston Area) , Laura Duceman (Mt. Carmel/Mt. Carmel) , Christa Johnson (Nescopeck/Berwick) and Beth Schwing (Hershey/Lower Dauphin) took seventh in 13:02.88.

Rounding out the day's events, Connie Rainieri (Gilbertville/St. Pius X) took 10th in the long jump final with a 16-03.50 effort.

The event will resume tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. with Bloomsburg athletes first competing in the mile run at 11:30.