PAC Championship Preview

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- The Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) released its Men's Indoor Track and Field Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll on Wednesday afternoon, which lists Allegheny College third out of 11 teams for tomorrow's championship meet.

The Gators were among four teams to receive at least one first-place vote. Grove City College was picked No. 1 with 85 points, followed by Washington and Jefferson College in second with 82 votes. Allegheny received 68 points, four ahead of fourth-place Geneva College (64).

Allegheny graduated its two indoor champions from last winter in Stephen Cullinan '23 (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) and Jacob King '23 (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe), who won the pole vault and weight throw, respectively. However, the Gators have several athletes who are highly seeded.

Included on the Athletes to Watch list from Allegheny were Cole Jooste (Upper St. Clair, Pa./Upper St. Clair), Peter Lantz (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg), Aaron Moon (Springfield, Va./Lake Braddock), and Jayden Thorpe (Fayetteville, N.C./North Hardin (Ky.).

Moon, a multi-event athlete, will be competing for numerous titles. The junior transfer is seeded first in the 60-meter dash (6.98 seconds), second in the long jump (6.95 meters) and the triple jump (13.13 meters), third in the 60-meter hurdles (8.60 seconds), fifth in the high jump (1.81 meters), and sixth in the pole vault (3.80 meters).

Lantz, a senior, was Allegheny's top finisher in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter races last season, placing sixth in the former and seventh in the latter. He will run both distance races again this year. Jooste will compete in the 800-meter and one-mile races, and Thorpe, a multi-sport student-athlete and a member of the Allegheny football team, will participate in the 60- and 200-meter sprints.

The 2024 PAC Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held at Youngstown State University's Watson and Tressel Training Site (WATTS) on Thursday, February 22. Field events begin at 10:30 a.m., and track events start at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, check out the PAC's championship preview.