Marauders seek breakthrough run at PSAC Championships

Saturday, October 21

Bloomsburg, PA

10:00 AM

Millersville University

PSAC Championship

Marauders seek breakthrough run at PSAC Championships

10/19/2023 8:18:00 AM | Women's Cross Country

Championship Site Live Stream

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

ABOUT THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Dates: Saturday, Oct. 21, 10 a.m.
Location: Upper Campus Cross Country Course, Bloomsburg University
2022 Champions: Edinboro (81 points)/Kylie Anicic, Edinboro
Millersville's 2022 finish (top finisher): 13th/18, 307 points (Morgan Janiuk, 32nd, 24:02.8)
Course Map

Millersville women's cross country competes in the annual PSAC Championship Saturday at Bloomsburg's 6K Upper Campus Course. The Marauders have a healthy and veteran roster seeking its first top-10 finish since 2011. The Marauders finished in 13th last season with Morgan Janiuk's 32nd-place finish leading the way, but results through the fall season project the Marauders with an improved finish and Janiuk in contention for All-PSAC honors.

The Marauders' last top-30 finisher was in 2019, and Yoangelys Rijo-Cedeno (2019) is Millersville's only All-PSAC First Team (top-15 finisher) runner since Elicia Anderson finished second in 2010. Janiuk and Kaycee McCullough are the most likely Millersville runners to snap that streak. On Oct. 7, Millersville competed on the Bloomsburg course and finished fourth behind Lock Haven, Bloomsburg and Kutztown but ahead of Seton Hill, IUP, Mansfield, East Stroudsburg and Pitt-Johnstown. Janiuk finished third with a season-best time of 23:40.4 and McCullough placed eighth with a PR of 23:59.5. McCullough placed 87th at the championships last season.

2023 marks the third fourth PSAC Championships for Janiuk who has finished 41st, 86th and 32nd. She was outstanding in the spring track season, placing fifth at the PSAC Outdoor Championships in the 1,500-meter run and seventh in the 10K. McCullough is also a three-time PSAC Championships veteran with a career-best finish of 40th in 2021.

Experienced runners returning include Breia Mayes (65th in 2022), Hannah Sweda (91st in 2022), Olivia Sunderland (123rd in 2022), Emily Massage (124th), and Bella Musgrove (127th). Sunderland recently placed 22nd in 24:41.2 at the Oct. 7 Bloomsburg Invitational while Sweda took 24th in 24:59.4. Sam Foster missed last season's PSAC Championships and has run just twice this fall, but she experienced the PSAC Championships in 2021, and she was Millersville's No. 7 finisher at the Bloomsburg Invitational. The Millersville lineup has also received a boost from freshmen Bri Pollock and Abby Bond. Pollock took 17th with a time of 24:28.1 at the Bloomsburg Invitational, and Bond ran sixth on the team with a time of 25:22.

MILLERSVILLE'S PSAC CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY

All-time PSAC Championships: -
Best Finish: 2nd, three times
Individual winners: Jo Rupp (1995), Kellie Boozer (1990)

From 1985-2002, Millersville finished inside the top five 13 times. That was a different PSAC, however, as it had five fewer members. The Marauders best finish since the conference expanded in 2008 was a fifth-place run in 2010. Individually, Jo Rupp and Kellie Boozer won individual races on a 5K course. Since the move to the 6K course, Millersville's best finishes have come from Priscilla Jennings (2009) and Elicia Anderson (2010), who both finished as runner-up. Jennings also placed fifth in 2008) and fourth in 2006.

SCOUTING THE FIELD
Edinboro has been the class of the conference, winning four consecutive championships since 2019. Three of the last four individual winners have also come from Edinboro. Seton Hill has knocked on the door in recent years, finishing runner-up each of the last two seasons and third in 2020-21 with Sydney Wolf winning the individual race in the fall of 2021. Anicic returns to defend her championship and won the most recent PSAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week award. At the Bloomsburg Invitational two weeks ago, Lock Haven's Elaina Klinger took first with a time of 22:10.5, and fellow Bald Eagle runners Krista Jones and Gwen Lloyd placed in the top 10. Bloomsburg's Kelley Selheimer was the runner-up, edging Janiuk by three seconds.