Staci Banaszek Rock was one of the most decorated women’s track & field athletes from 2002-06. Banaszek helped set the standard by which all future members of the Behrend track & field program would have to live up to. She became the first women’s track and field athlete to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships, placing ninth in the high jump in 2006. That same year, Banaszek was crowned ECAC Champion and named AMCC Student-Athlete of the Year, Behrend Scholar and Female Athlete of the Year. 

If you looked up the Top 10 performances for indoor and outdoor high jump, triple jump and long jump, you would see the name Staci Banaszek nearly everywhere. She began etching her name into the record books in 2003 and she made sure her name stayed. 

The records she set as a freshman would only be broken by her for the next three years. The Rookie of the Year honors, voted on by her teammates, translated to Team MVP as a sophomore, junior and senior for both track & field seasons. 

In her junior year at the ECAC Indoor Championships, Banaszek placed fifth in the long jump with a school record of 17’ 5.5”. She also took 10th in the triple jump (35’6”) and 14th in the high jump (5’2.75”). Holding several Behrend track & field records, she established new marks in the long jump (17’1.5”), the high jump (5’6”) and triple jump (36’9”) during the 2006 indoor season. Banaszek had a dream performance at the end of January in her senior year when she set two new school records and qualified for ECAC’s in three events in one day at Slippery Rock. She was crowned the ECAC Indoor Champion in the high jump and was an All-ECAC performer in all three events. 

At the NCAA Outdoor Championships held at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, she cleared 5’5.75” in the high jump to place ninth for the highest finish for a Penn State Behrend athlete at the track & field championships. She missed out on a tie for sixth place due to the championship tiebreakers and finished just off of her school record of 5’6”, which she set earlier that season. The senior captain capped her career with the prestigious Behrend Athlete of the Year and Scholar Athlete of the Year Awards as well as AMCC Student-Athlete of the Year.