Greene repeats and Forney wins 400 as Marauders score best-ever team finish

Saturday, February 23

Edinboro, PA

11:00 AM

Millersville University

PSAC Championships

Greene repeats and Forney wins 400 as Marauders score best-ever team finish

2/23/2019 8:08:00 PM | Women's Indoor Track and Field

Results

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

Edinboro, Pa. - The legend of Sunflower Greene continued to grow as she won her seventh and eighth individual PSAC Championships, and senior Clara Forney became the first Marauder to win the 400-meter dash as the Millersville women's track team registered a fifth-place finish--its best ever--at Saturday's PSAC Indoor Championships.

Greene, voted the PSAC Indoor Championships MVP, set a meet record in both the shot put and weight throw while winning both events for the second consecutive season. Dating back to the 2017 outdoor season, Greene has won the shot put in four consecutive PSAC championship meets as well as the weight throw/hammer in all four. One year ago, Greene became the first athlete to win both the shot put and weight throw at the same conference championships. Now she has done it twice.

"Sunny winning the overall MVP award was unanimous by the coaches," said Millersville head coach Andy Young. "They are all relieved that she is a senior. She is probably one of the most dominant athletes in league history."

In the weight throw, Greene hit 63-11 1/2, smashing a meet record of 58-5 that had stood since 2012. She won the event by 8-11 1/2. Her shot put mark of 52-1 3/4 was more than six feet better than the runner-up.

Forney finished third in the 400 as a junior and posted a season-best 57.91 to cross the line just behind her teammate Lenaiya Flowers. Flowers, however, was disqualified for a lane violation and Forney was elevated into first.

"The 400 was tough," said Young. Lenaiya cut in early from the staggered lanes. It's an advantage but it negated a great run. Clara had mixed emotions because she would have rather won outright."

Forney, the school record holder in the event, becomes only the fifth Marauder to win a PSAC indoor title. She came into the day seeded 10th in the PSAC but ran a time a full two seconds faster than her previous season best.

As a team, the Marauders posted 60 points, including 35 in the two throwing events. That total is the most since 2008, and the fifth-place finish out of 14 teams is the highest in the 17 years at the PSAC Championships.

MORE MEET HIGHLIGHTS
• Joining Greene in the top eight in the weight throw were Madison Martin and Aliyah Striver. Martin had scored in each of her first two PSAC Indoor Championships but notched her first career All-PSAC finish by hitting 53-10 1/4 and placing third. Striver took fifth with a career-best 51-6 1/2. Stephanie Garner finished just outside the scoring in ninth with a career-best toss of 49-1 1/2.
• Striver also scored in the shot put, placing fourth with a heave of 41-9 1/4. Martin and Reuneshia Williams narrowly missed scoring points, placing ninth and 10th respectively.
• Weather caused the championships to shorten to one day, eliminating prelims in all running events but the 60-meter dash. Emonie Reviere won the second heat of the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.65 and that was good for an All-PSAC finish in the third place. She is the fourth Marauder ever to be a top-three finisher in the 200.
• In the 60, Destinee Holloman ran a career-best 7.79 and placed eighth.
• The 4x400-meter relay team comprised of Flowers, Forney, Kay Liebl and Gabriela Karch ran a 4:04.77 and placed fourth.
• The 4x800-meter relay team of Yoangelys Rijo-Cedeno, Millie Davis, Skylar Maurer and Natalie Poulton ran 23 seconds faster than the seed team, posting a 9:58.10 and placing sixth.

MORE FROM COACH YOUNG
• "A great showing for our team. We had a number of people exceed expectations in terms of their seeding."
• "Our throws group had a very good day. Lots of points for the team score came from that group. They certainly have established themselves as an elite group on our team and in the conference."
• "Our sprinters have a knack for stepping up at the big meets. The way our coaching staff prepares them gives them faith that they can step up when it matters most."

NOTES
• Millersville's four individual All-PSAC performances are the most in program history.

UP NEXT
• Greene is guaranteed a spot in both the shot put and weight throw at the NCAA Division II Championships in Birmingham, Ala., on March 9. Greene is currently seeded No. 2 in the shot put and third in the weight throw. Striver also hit a NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the shot put and ranks 41st.

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