Thanks again to my support team for bringing actual news to the site for me. I was pleased to note so many who missed me. Wish I could have been there. -skwilli
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| Fred Singleton '74 and Gary Gittings '74 visit with Coach Groves after the meet. |
Word is already out about the exploits of the
Women’s and Men’s XC squads from last Friday at the Mid-Atlantic NCAA
Regional meet, so no trivia, stats or splits from me. Congratulations
to Matt Fischer and Jillian Hunsberger for qualifying individually for
the big dance next week in Terre Haute. I’ll need some help with fact
checking, but I believe that Matt is the first Nittany Lion to win the
Regional meet in school history. I know Alan Scharsu was second twice to
Solomon Chebor back in the day, but perhaps another Lion in the last 36
years snuck past my watchful, statistical eye and grabbed the top step?
If he isn’t the first to get first, there aren’t a lot of names on the
list of those who have. Impressive performance – more on that in the
Gator section. I know, I lied about the trivia/stats thing. Bite me
doughboy.
As was the
case in Hershey two weeks ago, State College was a veritable Hollywood
red carpet extravaganza littered with celebrities. Admittedly, the
level of celebrity in Central PA was a tiny bit below the mega-wattage
of those stars of stage and screen, but, as he’s gotten older, Tim
Backenstose’s ass makes Kim Kardashian’s look like a Gluteus Minimus
(there are rumors that Tim is in the process of tweeting his own
backside photo and one of him astride a horse, shirtless – the Vlad of
Coatesville). I’m proud he’s our ass, not someone else’s!!! Oh, it
also differed from Hollywood in that it was frigging cold and windy,
shocking for State College in November, and many were thankful they
weren’t wearing Dolfin shorts which led to that painful malady popsicle…
(rhymes with sock).
From
the recent ranks of alums was Owen Dawson (who had 5 hours of car
riding to hear about Tim’s Penn Relays win), who is under the tutelage
of a former Volunteer of Tennessee and may have his sights on longer
distances. When someone mentioned he should consider the steeple, his
facial expression gave the impression that wasn’t in his plans (or he
had really bad gas). Also in the ranks of greenhorn alums was Sam
Masters, PhD candidate and driver supreme (again, more on that later –
be patient or you’ll be asked to leave), Ryan Foster (ok, he has to be
at all of these things – sad for the rest of us wretched refuse who have
no such excuse), Emily Gianotti (2014 McCoy Memorial Award winner
[google it, I don’t have all day for this kind of stuff] and 4 time
District 9 3200 champ from Coudersport), and Greg Fredericks. I don’t
care that he graduated in 1972, he still looks like he could lace up his
spikes and grind me into the dust in a 10x400 workout.
A
flock of mid/late 80s and early 90s grads also gather from far and wide
to see the race and attend the game against the Temple Owls. I think
Doug Walter, who came from Boulder, may have travelled the longest
distance. Again, someone else can fact check, I’m taking a Baskwillian
stance and am not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. In
addition to Doug (one of the 1500 tribe, my personal favorite), also
spotted were Brian Laird, Steve Brown (both from the great City of
Pittsburgh and both XC All-America), Steve Balkey (another Steel City
denizen back in the day and another 1500 tribesman and record holder),
Bob Radzwich (who hosted a well-attended Friday night gathering at his
home, which was followed by a late night prayer service that lasted
until 2:45am [that’s the story he told his wife, I’m staying out of
it]), Aidan O’Reilly (brother of the Villanova guy we ran into at
Hershey 2 weeks ago), Steve and Beth Shisler (Penn Relays Wall of fame
guy and his bride who produced a fine Nittany Lion sprinter of their
own), Nick of Tesla and John McGraw (apparently not the former NY
baseball Giants manager from the 1930s). We spotted another fine PSU grad from my
favorite city in Pennsylvania, the man, the myth, the legend, the pride
of Shadyside Academy, Artie Gilkes. And, making a repeat appearance at a
chilly XC meet, were two of Camp Hill’s finest, Mark Haywood and Jeff
Sanden. Apologies to the guys whose
names I missed (Hawk, Steve and Nick can add the necessary errata and
addendums).
So on to the
Gator,
which after an annoying build up will most certainly be a letdown.
After stepping out of the team’s heated tent (Yes. Heated tent. After
being in there for 10 minutes I felt ashamed. Don’t tell Coach.), I
bumped into Sam Masters who was chatting with
Ryan Foster about making
sure he knew the 6K course well enough to keep the runners on the white
line for the duration. The next thing you know, Sam asks if I want to
jump in the Gator. It had been 5 minutes in the cold and wind since I
was in the heated tent, so I immediately said yes. Imagine my glee when
I found out the enclosed Gator had heat – the 8 track sucked, but it
had heat! It was a pretty cool experience watching the race unfold from
the front and equally cool to aim the Gator at fans who strayed too
close to the line (to ensure they gave the runners enough room, not to
take any pleasure in their stricken, about-to-be-run-over looks). In
the women’s race it was a 4 person slugfest until the last mile or so
when Georgetown’s Katrina Coogan, daughter of two Olympians (again,
google it), powered up the final hill to put a 100 meter gap on the
others in a most impressive fashion. Two other things to note about the
Gator: 1) the seats aren’t padded and 2) the back bed also isn’t
padded and has no heat (or 8 track), so
Mark Hawkins, the creator of the Baldwin HS logo and powerhouse master’s runner, deserves a medal
for riding in it for 30 minutes taking photos of the men’s race. For
the first 4 miles, it was a walk in the park (ok, stroll through the
White and Blue courses at a leisurely 5 minute pace). Then the front
group threw in a 4:35 mile and the lead pack thinned to 7 or 8 guys. On
the same last mile stretch the women’s winner staked her claim, Matt
Fischer eased from 5
th to the lead and simply ran away from
the pack. Chasing him to no avail was a Penn sub-4 miler and a 13:31
Villanova 5K guy. It was impressive to watch and got the Nittany Lion
faithful appropriately riled up along the finishing straight.
Best
quote from Matt to Mark Hawkins – “I thought that was you in the back of
the Gator” (that’s how you know the first 4 miles was a stroll).
Finally
(huge sigh of relief to the folks who have read this far. Also, you
need to get lives. And therapy. Both.), two groups of alums visited
with a happy and healthy Coach Groves at his new place of residence.
We also ran into Roger “Gunny” Roll and Coach Bill Whitaker. We all owe
a huge debt of thanks to Gunny and Greg Fredericks who have been
steadfast in their support and care of Coach. Coach has been really
pleased to see so many of his runners and friends, and to receive so
many cards and calls. He has really improved over the last month, and
it was a delight to see him looking so well. He also has fully retained
his sense of humor – we can rest assured that the windows in his room
are closed!!!
LTM
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