ERIE, Pa. – Penn State Behrend track and field athletes Rachel Pell (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward), Haley Yenchik (Cecil, PA/Canon McMillan), and Matt Michael (Erie, PA/Iroquois) have been named Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Athletes of the Week, announced on Tuesday.
For the women, Pell earned Track Athlete of the Week by breaking Behrend's stadium record in the 400m hurdles with a winning time of 1:03.75, posting a top 30 time in the NCAA. She also ran a leg on the women's second-place 4x100m relay team (50.66) and high jumped 1.25m. Pell competed in the 100m dash and 200m dash for fourth and third place finishes at times of 13.33 and 26.86, respectively. On Thursday at the Slippery Rock Open, she ran a 16.11 for an ECAC qualifying time and third place finish.
Yenchik was recognized as the Field Athlete of the Week after placing sixth at the Slippery Rock Invitational with a new Behrend record pole vault of 3.61m (11' 10"), ranking in the top 25 in the NCAA. Saturday, she won the Behrend home meet pole vault with a 3.36m mark. She also placed fifth in the triple jump with a 10.23m mark for an ECAC qualifier, fourth in the high jump at 1.25m, and third in the long jump with a 4.56m leap. Yenchik also competed in a few track events, taking second in the 4x100m relay, third in the 100m (13.10) and sixth in the 200m (27.58).
As for the men, Michael was selected as the Field Athlete of the Week after extending his top conference mark of 13.75m (45' 1.5") in the shot put, taking fourth at the Slippery Rock Invite on Thursday. He also placed eighth in the discus and ninth in the hammer at SRU. On Saturday, Michael took third in the shot put at 13.09m, but had season best marks in the discus (40.14m) for third and hammer (38.90m) for seventh, and tried the javelin where he threw 38.11m for fifth.