SELINSGROVE, PA – Defending champions Widener and Moravian are favored to capture the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, as the Middle Atlantic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships are held at the Susquehanna University field house on Saturday.

Competition in 17 men’s and 17 women’s events begins at 11 a.m. with the final relay race slated to start at 5:30 p.m. Admission to the championships is $4.00 for adults, $3.00 for seniors and $2.00 for students, with children under six free of charge.

A total of 10 schools will be participating in the championships, which the Pioneers and Lady Greyhounds have dominated over the last several years. Widener has claimed five consecutive men’s titles and seven of the last eight crowns while Moravian earned its sixth straight team championship last year and has won the title eight times in 10 years.

In all, five men’s and six women’s champions from 2001 will look to defend their titles this year, including both Most Outstanding Performers in Widener’s Michael Coleman and Moravian’s Heidi Wolfsberger.

Coleman won the 200 meters, triple jump and long jump last year, setting a meet record in the triple jump with a leap of 48 feet, 2 ¾ inches. While he is the top seed in the 200 meters this year, Coleman is seeded second in both jumping events.

He will be joined by Pioneer teammates Will Brownback and Matt Doumaux, who will seek to defend their gold medals in the 800 and 1,500 meters, respectively. They will receive strong competition in both events from teammate Bobby Ward in the 800 and Elizabethtown’s Steve Sanko in the 1500.

Messiah’s Chris Boyles is favored to repeat in both the 55-meter hurdles and the high jump. His qualifying height of 6-11 in the high jump easily surpasses the meet record of 6-8 ¾ that he established in 2000. Widener’s Mike Ruff is also a strong favorite to repeat in the 35-pound weight throw as his qualifying distance of 49 feet, 2 ½ inches is over a foot further than his winning throw from last year’s championships.

Other men’s athletes to watch are Moravian’s Kevin Bush, who is the top seed in both the 55- and 400-meter dashes; Juniata pole vaulter Dusty Lehr, who won gold last year with a jump of 14-0 and is the top seed this year with a height of 14-6; and Elizabethtown’s Mike Kistler, who is the top seed in the shot put with a distance of 46 feet, 3 inches.

On the women’s side, Wolfsberger is a heavy favorite to not only repeat in the 800 and 1,500 meters, but to break the championships records that she set in both events last year. In addition, Wolfsberger is the top seed in the 5000 meters with a time of 17:11.94 that is nearly 31 seconds faster than the next-best runner.

Widener’s Nicole Day is the top seed in the 55 meters (7.54) and the 200 meters (26.66) while Moravian’s Kirsten Rotzell is the number-one entry in both the long jump (17 feet, ¾ inch) and triple jump (37 feet, 2 ½ inches).

Elizabethtown’s Carrie Kerna is back to defend her record-setting performance in the 55-meter hurdles from a year ago with an entry time of 8.74 seconds that is .01 seconds faster than her record-setting time last year. Teammate Jessica Popp is the defending champion in the pole vault and the top seed after vaulting 9 feet, 3 inches during the indoor season.

Competition should be fierce in the 400 meters, where the top four seeds – including defending champion Jessica Sauve of Messiah – are entered with times faster than the MAC record of 1:01.73 set in 1992 by Erika Bruner of Haverford.

For the host Crusaders, the men will look to build upon a fourth-place finish in last year’s championships while the women look to climb from an eighth-place standing a year ago.

The men’s top competitors are senior Beau Heeps (Allentown, PA/Parkland H.S.), who is seeded eighth in the 55 meters and sixth in the 200 meters; senior Trever Fike (Millerstown, PA/Greenwood H.S.), the number-three seed in the 55-meter hurdles, and senior Mike Lehtonen (Laurens, NY/Morris Central H.S.), a 2001 qualifier for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships who is seeded fourth in the 5000 meters.

On the women’s side, junior Megan Patrono (West Milford, NJ/West Milford Twp. H.S.) is seeded second in the 55 meters and will look to add indoor gold to the two that she won at last spring’s MAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the 100 and 200 meters. She is also the number-two seed in the long jump, less than an inch behind top-seeded Rotzell from Moravian.

The Crusaders will be strong in distance events as well, with seniors Delina Cefaratti (Topton, PA/Brandywine Heights H.S.) and Kim Owen (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin H.S.) ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the 5000 meters. Freshman Kaleena Lockard (Beach Haven, PA/Berwick H.S.) could be a contender in the shot put as she is seeded third with a throw of 39 feet, 3 inches.