Men’s Indoor T&F starts weekend strong at VMI Brown, Macknair, Rideout among Raider standouts

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: February 11, 2022

Courtesy of Shippensburg Athletics

The Shippensburg University recorded some notable performances Friday at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) as it began a two-day weekend of competition in the VMI Winter Classic held at the Corps Physical Training Facility.

Three Raiders qualified for Saturday’s finals of the 60-meter dash, with Stephon Brown (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin East) leading the SU contingent with another time that satisfied the NCAA-provisional qualifying standard – 6.81 seconds in the semifinals. The time is just .06 seconds off his school record set in December.

Brown also placed fifth in the 400 meters, running the event for the first time this season and delivering a time of 48.56 seconds that moves him atop the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) leaderboard for the event.

Eric Kirk (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville Area) and Mo Whittle (Tobyhanna, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) each ran 6.96 seconds in the semifinals to qualify for Saturday’s finals. In the opening round of prelims, Kirk ran 6.94 seconds and Whittle ran 6.98 seconds.

Chayce Macknair (Lewistown, Pa./Mifflin County) continued his assault on the league leaderboard in distance events by improving his conference-best 5K time by more than 12 seconds with a second-place run of 14:36.96. Hayden Hunt (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg Area) also satisfied the PSAC’s automatic qualifying standard in the 5K with a time of 15:34.72.

Senior Alec Rideout (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan), a 2017 indoor All-America Second Team performer in the shot with Shippensburg, donned a Raider uniform for the first time in more than four years on Friday. Rideout picked up the weight and threw it 55 feet, 5 ½ inches – a fourth-place finish that moves him into second place on the league leaderboard behind teammate Pat Maloney (Collegeville, Pa./Methacton).

Other notable performances included Shamar Jenkins (Souderton, Pa./Souderton) placing second in the triple jump, narrowly missing his season best with a top mark of 47 feet, 0 ¼ inches, and James Jaisingh (Camp Hill, Pa./Cumberland Valley) improving his season best in the 400 meters to 49.71 seconds.

Competition resumes tomorrow at 10 a.m.

Stephon Brown 6.81sf (6.85p) (NCAA ‘P’)

Eric Kirk 6.96sf (6.94p) (PSAC)

Mo Whittle 6.96sf (6.98p) (PSAC)

Mason Boyd 7.22

Robert Lissner 7.43

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