In what was an exciting week of Geneva College athletics, the track and field team represented the Golden Tornadoes quite nicely with three student-athletes bringing home PAC championships. While the baseball team was busy winning an epic pitcherâ??s duel on Saturday, the Geneva softball team secured a spot in the 2013 PAC tournament with a perfect week on the diamond.

Nick Edinger has proven time and time again to be one of the most talented distance runners in school history. On Saturday, Edinger finally managed to bring home the one thing that had eluded him throughout his career. Edinger took home a PAC title in the 5000 meter race with a time of 15:11.28, which was more than 22 seconds better than the next closest competitor. Teammate Tyler French matched Edingerâ??s accomplishment with a conference title of his own in the shot put with a winning distance of 47-10. Frenchâ??s winning throw was more than eight feet better than any other PAC competitors. While Edinger and French seemingly cruised to their PAC titles, Alayna Merkle had to use every last breathe for her championship. Merkle took first place in the 1500 meter race and won by the margin of .48 of a second.

Edinger also took second place in the 10000 meter event to cap off an impressive weekend. French was also impressive in the discus with a fourth place finish. Other highlights for the men included Josh Guiser finishing seventh in the 100 meter finals and Jacob Mellinger placing sixth in the 200 meter event. Finally, Jordan Rupert finished third in the menâ??s javelin.

In other womenâ??s action, Geneva had three ladies finish in the top three in the shot put with Katherine Michalak placing second, Sara Williams fourth and Kayla Jackson fifth. Jackson also finished third in the javelin event. In the final team standings, Genevaâ??s men finished in sixth place overall while the women brought home a fifth place finish.

Genevaâ??s baseball team split four games this past week. After dropping a 4-1 decision at Westminster on Wednesday, the Golden Tornadoes took two of three from Bethany over the weekend. On Friday, Genevaâ??s bats came alive for an 11-9 victory over the Bison. In the win, Geneva banged out 15 hits including three from Jeremy Herzog and a two-run homer from Mike Jeffreys. Each of Genevaâ??s nine starters came away with at least one base hit in the victory. Saturdayâ??s first game against Bethany proved to be the exact opposite. Geneva and Bethany hooked up in one of the best pitcherâ??s duels you will ever see. The teams went 12 innings without any touching home plate. It wasnâ??t until Tyler Damazoâ??s game winning double in the 13 ^th that Geneva managed to come away with a 1-0 victory, Mike Jeffreys was nothing short of brilliant in his eight innings of work. Jeffreys struck out 14 batters and allowed just three hits. Tanner Propst got the victory after five innings of scoreless relief. Bethany managed to come back for a 5-4 victory in the night cap leaving Geneva with an overall record of 14-19 including a 9-12 mark in the PAC. The Golden Tornadoes will close out the 2013 campaign with a home three-game series against Thomas More beginning on Friday.

The Geneva softball team came into the final week of conference play needing to get some work done to insure qualification into the PAC tournament. The Golden Tornadoes took care of business with a perfect 4-0 mark with sweeps over Thomas More and Chatham. Geneva improved to 20-14 overall and 14-4 in the conference. Geneva finished the conference schedule tied for first place with Westminster but the Titans managed to secure the top seed in this weekâ??s conference tournament based on tie-breakers. Genevaâ??s sweep at Thomas More was the first by a PAC school in two years. Samantha Johnson hurled a three-hit shut-out in game one and Mackenzie Kemerer delivered a game winning base hit in the seventh inning in Genevaâ??s 1-0 victory. In game two, Andrea Hinds shut down the Saints in a 5-2 decision. Johnson and Hinds teamed up again on Saturday with each picking up a victory at Chatham. Geneva will begin its defense of its 2012 PAC title on Wednesday in New Wilmington. Geneva will play Washington & Jefferson in a first round game beginning at 1 pm. Westminster will host Thomas More in the other first round game.

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