Local trio places in Bison Open

Elk Lake graduate Cassie VanEtten was part of Shippensburg University’s 4×400 relay team which took third place at the Bison Opener in Lewisburg over the weekend.

It was the start of the indoor track season for Bucknell University of the Patriot League and a cast of other schools across the Atlantic Seaboard, including Kutztown, Maryland-Baltimore County, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, St. Francis, and Susquehanna.

The team of Lauren Ellsworth, VanEtten, Megan Lundy and Caitlin Stuetz finished third with a time of 4:01.94, just eight-tenths of a second from a first place finish by a team from St. Francis College and 17-hundredths of a second behind Bucknell’s second place team.

Ellsworth also finished sixth in the 60-meter dash preliminaries with a time of 7.94 seconds, and then seventh in the finals with a time of 8:00 seconds, 53-hundredths of a second off the winning pace by Mercedes Jackson of Maryland-Baltimore County.

She was also supposed to run in the 400-meter dash, but did not start the race.

VanEtten did compete in that race, finishing eighth in a time of 1:01.15, just slightly over two seconds off the winning pace of teammate Lundy.

Also at the Bison Open were Montrose Area grads Cody DeBoer, now at Shippensburg, and Sarah Kimsey, now at Kutztown.

DeBoer took third in the long jump with a distance of 22 feet 6.25 inches, some 15.25 inches off the winning mark of Ship teammate Herman Kirkland.

Kimsey took third in the women’s high jump with a 5-1 mark, four inches off the first place finish mark of Kutztown teammater Rachel Eshleman.