A Report From The NCAA Mid-Atlantic Prelims In Happy Valley

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

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