EDINBORO, Pa. – For the second straight day, the Clarion University had an all-conference performer at the 2013 PSAC Indoor Track & Field Championships when Allyson Cress finished third in the shot put.
Cress had an indoor personal-best throw of 40-feet, 4-inches, the second straight year she has been in the scoring at the indoor championships after taking sixth a year ago.
“She pretty much put things together in the finals,” Clarion head coach D.J. Bevevino said. “All three final throws were very good. The last three weeks, she has been putting together in the shot put. Her hard work paid off.”
Also scoring for the Golden Eagles Sunday was Sarah Loughner who finished tied for sixth in the high jump with a leap of 5-1 ¾ , the third straight year she has scored in the event after taking sixth last year and seventh in 2011.
“It was Sarah’s best jump this season,” Bevevino. “And she nearly set the school record on her last attempt. I’m very happy for her. Again, her dedication helped her reap her rewards.”
Combined with Kristen Belko’s third-place finish in the pentathlon Saturday, Clarion earned 14 points, its most points at the indoor meet since scoring 36 in 2009. It was good for 13th place, the Golden Eagles highest finish since taking 11th in 2010 with 11 points.
Sunday also saw Belko just missing scoring in both the triple jump and high jump finishing ninth in both events. She jumped a personal-best 35-4 in the triple jump and just missed with a jump of 5-1 ¾ in the high jump finishing out of the scoring because of tiebreakers.
Kristine Mellor took 16th in the high jump with a leap of 4-11 ¾.
In the final event of the meet, Clarion’s 4×400 relay team of Danielle Konopski, Tanea Lehman, Bethany Naugle and Anna Pfingstler took 10th in a time of 4:08.65.
NOTES – Clarion was 14th in each of the last two seasons scoring nine points last year and 2 ½ points in 2011 … In addition to her indoor finishes, Cress was also third in the shot put at the 2011 outdoor championships earning United States Track & Field and Cross County Coaches Association All-Atlantic Region honors and was seventh in the shot put at the 2012 PSAC outdoor meet. She also took second in the discuss at last season’s outdoor meet … Loughner has also had scoring success outside taking eighth in 2011 and four in 2010 in the high jump. She just missed scoring at the 2012 outdoor championships taking ninth … The last time Clarion had two individual all-conference performers (Top 3 finishes) was in 2009 when Erin Richard was second in the 3,000-meter run and Diane Kress was second in the triple jump … Clarion finished 3 ½ points behind California for 12th. Shippensburg won the PSAC Title with 125 ½ points outpacing second-place Kutztown (91 ¾) by a large margin.
