briefs
Cal’s Means honored
Following an impressive spring campaign, California University junior Jae’Len Means was selected the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year on Friday.
Means becomes the program’s first PSAC Track Athlete of the Year recipient since 2014 and the fifth overall in the last decade. Last month, he was named the Most Outstanding Track Athlete of the PSAC Championships before competing in two events at the NCAA Championships.
Means captured the league title in the 100- and 200-meter dash this spring while recording the fastest time in the events during both the preliminaries and finals at the PSAC Championships. He broke the championship record in the 200 meters during the preliminaries with a time of 21.03 seconds after the previous mark of 21.19 seconds stood since 1982. Means then won the league title in the 200 meters by three-tenths of a second with a time of 21.50 seconds during the finals. The Gateway product also captured the victory in the finals of the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 10.34 seconds at the league championships.
Honor for Cal’s Friend
After a dominating spring season, California University senior Julie Friend was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year for the second time in her career on Friday.
Friend received PSAC Athlete of the Year honors for the fourth time in her standout career: in 2016 outdoor track, 2017 indoor track and 2017 cross country. The women’s track & field program has featured at least one Track Athlete of the Year in each of the past four years.
A Uniontown product, Friend earned NCAA First-Team All-America honors and broke the all-time PSAC record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase this spring. She placed fifth overall in the finals of the event at the NCAA Championships last month with a time of 10 minutes, 4.37 seconds, which ranks as the ninth-fastest time ever in NCAA Division II history. Friend improved her own school and conference record set at the Penn Relays early this year by nearly 15 seconds. She captured the league title in the steeplechase for the second time in her career, as she led the race wire-to-wire and won by nearly 14.5 seconds with a time of 10:57.16.
W&J’s Johnson named honorable mention
Fastpitch News recently released its 2018 NCAA Division III Softball All-America teams and Washington & Jefferson junior second baseman Rachel Johnson was an Honorable Mention selection.
Johnson was one of three Presidents’ Athletic Conference student-athletes to be recognized by the publication and it is believed to be the first time in program history W&J has had an All-American softball player. The honor represents yet another on the list of accomplishments for the junior following her first season of collegiate softball. She earned Google Cloud Academic All-America Second-Team laurels earlier this month and securing Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Rookie of the Year accolades to go along with ECAC and PAC First-Team honors already.
On the diamond, Johnson led the PAC and ranked 17th in Division III with a .492 batting average, compiling 61 hits in 124 at-bats.