A Welcome Return

SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Saturday's Susquehanna University Track & Field Invitational is guaranteed to be an historic one as 22 Division I, II and III schools come together for the first major meet at Susquehanna's new Nicholas A. Lopardo Stadium.

Nearly 900 athletes will take part in 20 men's and 21 women's events at the 17th annual Invitational, which begins at 9:45 a.m. with the women's 5,000-meter run and wraps up at 5:55 p.m. with the running of the men's 4x400-meter relay.

Among the schools taking part in the Invitational are Division I Bucknell, Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference members Bloomsburg, Indiana (Pa.), Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville and Shippensburg, and Division III Middle Atlantic Conference members Delaware Valley, Elizabethtown, Juniata, Lebanon Valley and Messiah. As in previous years, there will be no team scoring kept during the meet.

Only eight champions return from last year's meet, which was held at Bucknell's Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium after old Amos Alonzo Stagg Field was demolished to make way for Lopardo Stadium, but two of the competitors won multiple crowns last year.

Indiana (Pa.)'s Derek Brinkley returns this year after sweeping the hurdle events at last spring's meet. He won the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 15.18 seconds and captured the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with a time of 54.65 seconds.

In the high jump, defending MAC champion and championship record-holder Chris Boyles of Messiah will look to hold on to his 2000 title, which he won with a jump of 6-6. He tied for fifth in the event at the 2000 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Mansfield's Lamar Crawford won last year's long jump by nearly one foot over his closest competitor, while teammate Kyle Kintner is the man to beat in the pole vault after winning last year's title with a vault of 14-6.

On the women's side, two-time defending 100 and 200 meters champion Amber Plowden of Indiana (Pa.) returns to compete in both events this year. She has set new Invitational records in the 200 meters each of the last two years, winning last year in a time of 25.47 seconds. Plowden finished third in the 100 meters and fourth in the 200 meters at the 2000 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Bucknell's Steph Bango also returns to defend her title in the 400 meters, an event in which she defeated teammate Yetunde Daniels by .01 seconds last year. Millersville senior Jennifer Knuth was victorious in last year's 3000 meters after nipping Bloomsburg's Amanda Eltringham by just .89 seconds in the event.

Fellow Bison Andrea Nyce will compete again in the pole vault after clearing 10-6 last spring to win the title and set a new Invitational record.

Perhaps the most intriguing competition at the Invitational will take place in the javelin, where Susquehanna sophomore Matt Deamer (Lewistown, Pa./Indian Valley H.S.) has thrown NCAA automatic-qualifying distances in each of the team’s first two outdoor meets this season (including 212-1 last Saturday) after finishing 11th at the national championships as a freshman last spring. He will face his stiffest competition of the spring from none other than 2000 NCAA Division III javelin champion and former Crusader standout Adam Ressler, who will compete unattached at this year’s Invitational. Ressler won the national title last season with a modern school-record throw of 221-6.

Both Deamer and Ressler will have their eyes set on breaking one of the longest-standing records at the Invitational. Bucknell’s Bob McCormick holds the mark with a distance of 212-3 at the 1988 Invitational. Only two of the 20 events at the SU Invitational have stood longer than the mark in the javelin, but the former Crusader teammates are capable of breaking the mark. That event will take place on the field hockey field which faces the new Jacobs Fitness Center.

Invitational Schedule