30 Earn All-CSAC Honors; Cooper Named Coach of the Year
The Penn State Behrend men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams each won a Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Championships May 8, and a total of 18 men and 12 women earned All-Conference honors by finishing in the top three of their respective events.
ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's and women's outdoor track and field teams each won a Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Championships May 8, and a total of 18 men and 12 women earned All-Conference honors by finishing in the top three of their respective events.
After earning AMCC Cross Country Coach of the Year honors in the fall, head coach Greg Cooper caps off the spring as the Coach of the Year for both the men's and women's track teams. He led the Lions to the inaugural CSAC Championships after winning 26 of the 42 events (12 women, 14 men) and capturing the men's crown by 159 points and the women's title by 148.5 points.
Highlighting the men's side was junior Mitchell Obenrader (Fryburg, PA/North Clarion), who was named the Field MVP of the championships. He made the first team by winning the shot put, discus, hammer and javelin, including posting the number one distance in all of the NCAA in the javelin.
Kevin Gardner (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) earn first-team honors in three different events. He won the high jump, long jump and joined Joseph Neff (North East, PA/North East), Luke Patten (West Middlesex, PA/West Middlesex) and Matthew Grafton (Worthington, PA/Kittanning) in winning the 4x100m relay.
On the women's side, Paige Allen (Butler, PA/Butler) was a first-team performer five separate times, earning her Track MVP honors. She individually won the 100m, 200m and 100m hurdles. Allen was also a part of both winning relay teams to finish her remarkable championship.
Allen joined Haley Yenchik (Cecil, PA/Canon McMillan), Rachel Pell (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward) and Ashlyn Carlsson (Butler, PA/Knoch) by winning the 4x100m relay and Allen, Yenchik, Pell and Courtney Sargent (Erie, PA/Collegiate Academy) won the 4x400m relay to all capture first-team accolades.
Yenchik was also the winner of the pole vault and the triple jump to give her four first-team accomplishments in her many different events.
A complete list of all the All-Conference and Honorable Mention honorees can be found through the CSAC website: http://csacsports.org/news/2016/5/10/MTRACK_0510160337.aspx