CLARION, Pa. — A small but talented group of athletes will represent the Clarion University women’s track and field team at the 2015 PSAC Championships Thursday through Saturday at East Stroudsburg.

The Golden Eagles enter the meet with nine individual qualifiers and three relays including five individuals seeded in the top 10 with three seeded in the top five.

“It’s definitely about how the individuals perform,” Clarion head coach D.J. Bevevino said. “Until we can get a large group of people in a number of different events or one great athlete in in a number of different events, we are going to concentrate on the people who have qualified trying to perform the best they have all season. Hopefully, some will move up from their seeds and score points for us, and some of them who are already up there seeded pretty well will hopefully maintain those or get better and we will at least get some points.”

The highest seeded athlete entering the meet for the Golden Eagles is sophomore Tatiana Cloud, who is seeded second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.60 just under three seconds behind top-seeded Erin Madison of Millersville and 1.2 seconds off the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying time of 1:02.40.

Cloud was fifth in the event at last year’s outdoor championships and was also a member of Clarion’s 4×400-meter relay team that took ninth at this year’s indoor championships.

“I’m really, really hopeful that she really has a big time run in either the prelims or the finals,” Bevevino said. “I think she certainly has the potential to be a national provisional qualifier. Madison is significantly ahead of her, but in that hurdle race, you never know what will happen. Tatiana has run well. I think she is feeling pretty good. She has the experience from last year. Going in there as the No. 2 seed is a pretty good position to be in.”

Junior Kristen Belko enters the championships as the highest active scorer on the team having earned six different scoring places between indoor and outdoor track in her first two-and-a-half seasons at Clarion. She was fifth in the indoor pentathlon this past winter while taking seventh in the high jump. At last year’s outdoor championships, she finished seventh in the high jump and just missed scoring in the heptathlon taking 11th. She was seventh in the pentathlon at the 2014 championships, eighth in the heptathlon at the 2013 outdoor meet and third in the pentathlon at the 2013 indoor championships as a freshman.

This year, she is seeded third in the heptathlon with a season-best 4,271 points. Defending champion Brianne Dietrich of Edinboro is seeded first with 4,548 points, while Seton Hill’s Nicole Malara is seeded second with 4,497 points. Belko, who will also compete in the high jump, is nearing the school record in the heptathlon of 4,481 points set by Diane Kress in 2008.

“Hopefully for Kristen this year it’s a better performance than last year’s heptathlon where things didn’t go as well,” Bevevino said. “She did a heptathlon a couple of weeks ago out at Kutztown and did very well. She should be well rested in ready to go. It’s a good field, and she is well aware of the people ahead of her and some of the people who are behind her have beaten her. So, she is going to have to be on top of her game to maintain a placement in the top three, four or five. I just want her to perform well. She is creeping up on the school record, and I know that is a goal of hers.”

A couple of first year athletes join Cloud and Belko in having a chance to score for Clarion in freshmen Summer Murray and Kari Steuer.

Murray is seeded sixth in the discus with a season-best throw of 132-feet, 9-inches (40.47 meters).

“Summer has some big meet experience fortunately,” Bevevino said. “Coming out of high school, she competed over the summer throwing in a national competition. I’m not concerned with her being in that atmosphere, although she is still a freshman. The pressure can get to her, but I think she is going to do well if she can relax and just kind of enjoy the moment.”

Steuer, meanwhile, is seeded fifth in the shot put with a throw of 40-feet, 4 3/4-inches (12.29 meters). She will also throw the discus.

“Kari has been a real surprise,” Bevevino said. “She has continued to improve week-to-week. I really have no idea what her limits are. For her to be seeded in the top six is incredible from where she came a year ago in high school. If she is able to pull that off, great.”

Sophomore Jessica Hamrick also has a shot at scoring for Clarion. Hamrick, the school-record holder in the pole vault with a jump of 11-feet, ¼-inch (3.36 meters) is seeded 10th thanks to that mark. Hamrick was seventh in the pole vault at this year’s indoor championships.

“She is right there, right now,” Bevevino said. “Her last couple of meets, she has been close to clearing a height higher than her current mark. She has the potential to do that, and weather could be a factor. If there is a wind one way or the other or is it raining or dry? Anything can happen in the pole vault event. I really would not be surprised if Jess places.”

Clarion could also be strong in all three relays.

The 4×100-meter of Jessica Shomo, Courtney Corban, Anna Pfingstler and Cloud is seeded ninth in a time of 48.82. The relay took fifth at last year’s championships in a school-record time of 48.58 with only Jessica Vitous not back – Cloud has taken her place.

“Anything can happen, especially in the 4×100,” Bevevino said. “We are seeded right out the scoring, but we definitely can score. I think this year’s team has the potential to run faster than last year’s team. It’s all a matter of handoffs. I know the four girls can run. If they can get their handoffs where they are getting the baton when they are moving fast and pass it well, we’ve got a good chance. That is all we can hope for. Run well and get up in that top eight and making the finals.

The 4×400-meter relay team of Corban, Kelsey Johnson, Pfingstler and Cloud is not seeded but could be a real surprise, Bevevino said.

“The 4×400 is the strangest one of the bunch,” Bevevino said. “We actually had to wait until this past weekend to see who all was going to run it. We knew three of the legs with Tatiana, Courtney and Anna. We were just looking for the fourth leg, and Kelsey Johnson kind of came through the last two weeks and has earned that spot. They have a legitimate shot of placing if they all put together a really good race. There is no reason we can’t cut nine seconds off what we are seeing. Those four really haven’t run together as a team yet. That would be good accomplishment that we are capable of.”

Bevevino also believes the 4×800-meter relay squad of Kelsey Murray, Rikki Brumbaugh, Danielle Tarr and Katie Chambers, which is seeded seventh with a time of 10:49.97 run way back on March 22 at California (Pa.), could also figure in the scoring.

“We are one of only seven teams who have run one this year,” Bevevino said. “There are still other teams who are entered who haven’t run it because the conference allows each school to enter one team. I don’t know what kind of time they are going to run. I don’t know what kind of time we are going to run because we have only run it one time, the first meet of the season. The whole reason we are entering that team, is because we have the potential to get in the top eight and maybe score a point. If that happens, it’s wonderful.”

In addition to her relay work, Corban could also score in the 400-meter dash, an event she finished eight in last year.

“She ran her best time ever last year in the prelims,” Bevevino said. “The potential is there for that to happen again.”

Pfingstler will also run the 400, while Shomo will compete in the 100-meter dash and the long jump and Chambers in the 1,500-meter run.

NOTES – Last year, Clarion finished 12th at the outdoor meet with 27 points, the second-highest scoring total for the Golden Eagles in the past six year (they had 35 points in 2012).