TOWSON, Md. --- The Moravian University men's and women's indoor track & field squad have had a total of 16 student-athletes honored by the Landmark Conference for their performances at the 2022 Landmark Indoor Championships last weekend hosted by Susquehanna University.
The men's team, which finished third at the conference meet, had nine student-athletes earn 10 All-Conference honors while the women's squad, which was the runner-up in the championships, had seven student-athletes garner 10 All-Conference selections. Junior Crystal Robinson was selected as the Women's Track Athlete of the Year.
Robinson captured Landmark Conference titles in the 200-meter dash in a time of 25.16 seconds and the 400-meter dash in 1:00.41 to earn Landmark All-Conference First Team honors. Both times met the qualifying standards for the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Indoor Championships.
"Crystal is a tremendous talent, but she's had some bad luck with a back injury that plagued her for much of December and the early parts of January when we returned from winter break. Due to this, it took a little longer to get her 400 and 200m times back down to what we know she's capable of," stated Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "Luckily, we've had over a month of uninterrupted training, so her fitness has built on itself, but with this weekend what helped her the most was ultimately her competitiveness. She's extraordinarily good at flipping that switch when she needs to, not only for the big meet days, but within a race. In the 400m, she was holding a consistent margin to the leader for much of the race until she came around the final turn and knew how to find that final gear. It was a tight race between her and Helen in the 200m, but it was the same thing when they were feeling some pressure from Goucher, she knew how to summon the extra power in her stride to cap off a win. She did all she could to come back on short rest in the 60m finals but was understandably tired, and the same thing in the 4x400, she did all she could after a huge slate of events and still managed to run in the 62's. Overall, though, she accounted for 30 of our team's points and was clearly worthy of this award."
The women had three other student-athletes garner All-Conference First Team accolades for winning conference titles including junior Helen Davis in the 60-meter dash, junior Lexi Groff in the high jump and junior Maddie Wickel in the 20-pound weight throw. All three turned in AARTF qualifying marks while winning their events.
Davis also earned All-Conference Second Team honors for a runner-up finish to Robinson in the 200-meter dash with an AARTF qualifying time, and Davis joined with junior Haylee Saylor and freshmen Zoey Bronson and Racquel Ramey for a second-place finish in the 4x200-meter relay for All-Conference accolades.
For the entire 2022 Landmark All-Conference Women's Indoor Track & Field list, visit https://landmark.prestosports.com/sports/track/2021-22/releases/14282022-women-indoor-track-awards.
The men's program had seven student-athlete earn Landmark All-Conference First Team including graduate student Shane Mastro, who captured the shot put title for the fourth time in his career with an AARTF qualifying toss. Junior Dan Jenkins won the 35-pound weight throw with an AARTF qualifying distance while graduate student Peter Gingrich took first in the 800-meter run and the Greyhounds' 4,000-meter distance medley relay squad of senior Brad Clemson, sophomore Casey Frank and freshmen Jake Farrell and Geoffrey Kleinberg also won their race.
Moravian had three All-Conference Second Team honorees on the men's side with Mastro as the runner-up in the weight throw with an AARTF qualifying mark, senior Timothy King taking second in the shot out and senior Dominic DeRafelo finishing seconds in the mile run.
To view the entire 2022 Landmark All-Conference Men's Indoor Track & Field honors, visit https://landmark.prestosports.com/sports/track/2021-22/releases/14282022-men-indoor-track-awards.
Moravian is scheduled to return to action on Friday and Saturday, March 4-5 at the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Championships being hosted by Nazareth (N.Y.) College