Double The Votes, Double The Fun

I'm upping the complexity of the blog a bit.  Hope all of you can keep up!

The last 2 Semi-Finals in the Performance of the Year Poll will be conducted simultaneously.  One will be on the left sidebar and one will be on the right sidebar.  Be sure to visit the full web site and vote for your top three in both!!!

Semi Final #2: Left Side Bar

1. Darrell Hill 66' 2.5" School Record in the Shot Put in first meet of the year.
2. Double Indoor Big Ten Champion Robbie Creese (3000M and Mile).
3. Joe Kovacs 73' 3" PR opening heave of Outdoor Season.
4. Brannon Kidder NCAA Leading 800M at Payton Jordan Invite.
5. Bob Hillman receives Distinguished Alumni Award (PSU's Highest Honor).
6. Joe Kovacs USATF Champion in Shot Put.
7. Darrell Hill 2nd at NACAC Shot Put.
8. Womens team victory at Big Ten Championships XC.

Semi-Final #3: Right Side Bar

1. Tessa Barrett XC All-American.
2. Ron Moore's First 100-Miler (with Alumni Singlet).
3. Joe Kovacs World IAFF Championship Shot Put.
4. Cas Loxsom makes 4 x 800M US team.
5. Darrell Hill 2nd at the NCAA Championships Shot Put.
6. Tori Gerlach qualifies for NCAA Finals in 2 events.
7. Darrell Hill's defense of Penn Relays Shot Put.
8. Mark Parker USA Business Person of the Year.

Hayward Field Being Redone Again

They are renovating Hayward Field again in time for the continued NCAA Championships and in anticipation of the IAAF World Championships in 2021. I liked the way it was in 1977 or so.  We are losing our heritage bit by bit!

Hayward Field 2017

Otter and Boone at Hayward Field 1977.

Niedermeier (on horse) at Hayward Field 1977.

And here's some additional stuff you may not know about the second greatest movie of all-time.

And don't forget to vote in the first of 3 semi-finals for Performance of the Year.  (And the subsequent 2!)  Click on those ads also!

Voting Is A Right, Guaranteed by Our Constitution. Sorta, I Think

I think it's in there somewhere.  The right to vote in the Semi-Finals for Performance of the Year on the left sidebar of the full web site...  

Who has really bothered to read the whole thing anyway?  But I'm pretty sure it's in there near the place where it asks that you continue to click on the ads in order to garner some much needed funds for the blog maintenance.  Ben Franklin was a wily and shrewd businessman.  I'm pretty sure he would be on my side.

The Constitution

Ben Franklin Blogging.

First Of Three Semi-Finals For Performance Of The Year!

It's time to vote for the Performance of the Year again.  We will start out with a random selection of the nearly thirty nominations in the first of three Semi-Final rounds. You have to actually visit the full web site in order to vote for up to three performances to make it to the final round.

While you are there, don't forget to click on some of the advertisements in order to earn us some money for continued web site expenses.  And check out the live web camera of me blogging away at Blog Central on the very bottom of the entire page!

Here are the first set of this year's nominations: Go to the left sidebar of the full web site to vote for three (3) to make it to the Finals.

1. Womens XC team wins the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Cross Country title.
2. Ron Moore spreads the word in numerous Ultra-Marathons with his Alumni Singlet.
3. Coach Gondak's entire coaching resume for 2014 and 2015.
4. Brannon Kidder second in the NCAA Outdoor 800M.
5. Glen Burkhardt crawling across the line to make the NCAA 10,000M Finals.
6. Casimir Loxsom winning World Championship 4 X 800M Relay title.
7. Mens Distance Medley Relay team's second place at NCAA Indoors.
8. Casimir Loxsom's American Record in Indoor 600M.

 

Merry Christmas To One And All

The Final Listing Of The Greatest Penn State Womens Cross Country Runners Of All Time, Just In Time For Christmas Unwrapping

With the combination of the AIAW results from 1975-1980 and the NCAA results from 1981 to the present, we finally have complete results of the Womens Collegiate Championships.  Those who finished in the top 50 of any of those Championships are included in the rankings.  A complex, flawed and arbitrary method was used to rank them according to my whim and mood.  I was persistent to find all these results so that I could include some friends I have actually run some miles with.  Merry Christmas to Patty, Mary, Kathy, Liz, Kris and Heather.

1. Kathy Mills Parker - 3rd 1976, 1st 1977, 3rd 1978, 4th 1979 for 179.6 points.
2. Liz Berry Larsen - - 15th 1975, 11th 1976 and 16th 1977 for 97.3 points. 
3. Kris Bankes - 3rd 1975, 43rd 1976, 15th 1977 for 79.6 points. 
4. Heather Carmichael - 8th 1979, 24th 1980, 31st 1981, 43rd 1983 for 77.6 points. 
5. Bridget Franek - 23rd 2008, 26th 2009 for 52.8 points.
6. Susanne Heyer - 14th 2000 for 36.7 points.
7. Caitlin Lane - 16th 2011 for 35.0 points.
8. Liz Cunningham Kisenwether - 12th 1975 for 33.5 points.
9. Stacia Prey - 23rd 1985, 41st 1987, 31st 1988 for 30.1 points. 
10. Kimberly Kelly Segiel - 27th 1992, 35th 1994 for 28.4 points.
11. Patty Murnane Nosack - 24th 1979 for 26.4 points.
12. Mary Rawe Rapp - 26th 1980 for 20.1 points.
13. Kimberly McGreevy - 28th in 1996 for 19.4 points. 
14. Donna Gardner - 34th 1976 for 13.1 points.
15. Tessa Barrett - 38th 2015 for 13.0 points. 
16. Doreen Startare McCoubrie - 28th in 1982 for 12.0 points.
17. Kelli Hunt - 42nd 1992, 44th 1993 for 11.4 points. 
18. Colleen Glyde - 41st 1992 for 7.1 points. 
19. Wendy Nelson - 43rd 1990 for 5.6 points.
20. Eileen Meenan - 45th 1975 for 5.2 points.
21. Torri Perri - 47th 2012 for 4.0 points. 
22. Erin St. John - 46th 1994 for 3.6 points. 
23. Jennifer Weaver - 46th 1993 for 3.6 points. 
24. Meredith White - 45th 1984 for 2.6 points. 

Santa Sets A Record In Philadelphia

I've had this one awhile, but waited until now to repost it.  Santa is apparently as fast on his feet as he is on his sleigh...

Brian Lang did the jolly fat man good at the Philadelphia Marathon with a possible world record of 2:54:02 for those in festive garb.  But we all remember the exploits of Gary Fanelli back in the day.

A Treadmill Runner Weirder Than Me!

I take a lot of heat for running almost all of my miles on a treadmill.  But I do occasionally brave the outdoors. And the most I ever ran on a treadmill was 20 miles. This guy won't have the outdoor option at all when he "runs the London Marathon".

Tim Peake To Run London Marathon

The current record for treadmill running of a marathon in space is held by a woman!  Sunita Williams ran the Boston Marathon in 4:24 while strapped to the machine by sophisticated bungee cords and duct tape in 2007. The newer machine should be much nicer.

Our very own Liz Cunningham almost became an astronaut and could have easily eclipsed that mark!  (Thanks to Official Physicist Brian Boyer for that tidbit.)

 And a timely episode of the Muppets "Pigs In Space" just for the heck of it.

 

Naughty Or Nice? Only Coach And Santa Know For Sure

Hello everyone in the Penn State Track and Field Alumni Group Universe!


Attached is a picture of Coach Groves and Santa.  Santa stopped to see him a few days back; Santa wanted to get some inside information from Coach as to which of Coach's boys have been naughty or nice.  (You girls all got a pass from Coach this year!) You can tell by the grin on Coach's face that some of the boys have a reason to be worried this year.

Photo by Greg Fredericks.

Maybe I Will Be Able To Bring Drone XC and Track Footage To The Blog After All

The cost of drones has really been coming down, but it is still prohibitive for a simple sorta-doctor like me.  Combine that with the new regulations from the FAA coming, and I figured the dream was dead.  But then along came OnagoFly, the micro drone with a cost that won't break the bank and a size that the FAA won't worry about.

Check it out and pre-order one now here:

OnagoFly Miniature Drone

1980 Marked The Virtual End Of The AIAW: (With Movie and Song!)

The Organization persisted for 2 years and some teams even ran in both Championships.  But for all intents the NCAA sucker punched the AIAW in a bitter street fight  (and Here) and stole everything. Title IX played a role in the demise of the female-only organization.

But Penn State was there on the line in Seattle, Washington at the 1980 AIAW Cross Country Championships, finishing in 4th place.

1. Heather Carmichael          24th    17:42
2. Mary Rawe                       26th    17:44
3. Peggy Cleary                    62nd    18:14
4. Patty Murnane                  66th     18:16
5. Natalie Updegrove           69th     18:18
6. Doreen Startare              155th     18:58
7. Magda Kubasiewicz       193rd    19:29 

This adds Mary Rawe to the ranks of the Greatest PSU Women Cross Country runners.  (One of the main reasons I was persistent in getting these complete results!)   The Final Rankings will be coming soon!
Top Movies 1980:

1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back  (now Episode 5)    "Luke, I am your father."
2. Raging Bull     "You didn't get me down, Ray." (meaning Sugar Ray Robinson beat him to a pulp, but he never went down.)
3. Airplane     "Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"

Top Songs 1980:

1. Call Me - Blondie 
2. Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd 
3. Magic - Olivia Newton-John 

 

Another Third Place In The AIAW Championships: 1979

Top Movies 1979:

1. Apocalypse Now   " I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
2. Alien     " The pit is completely enclosed. And it's full of leathery objects, like eggs or something."
3. Mad Max     "I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!"

Top Songs 1979:

1. My Sharona - The Knack
2. Bad Girls - Donna Summer
3. Le Freak - Chic 

Two Nittany Lions placed in the top 10 of the 1979 AIAW Cross Country Championships.  Fourth place finisher Kathy Mills was joined by Heather Carmichael in 8th place.  The team finished in third behind first time winner North Carolina State and Oregon.

This cements Patty Murnane's name on the listing of Greatest PSU Womens XC Runners. Coming Soon.

Movies Were Still Better Than The Songs In 1978: AIAW Results Keep Coming!

There was a lot of opposition to having the 1978 Championships at altitude when Colorado submitted its bid at the 1977 AIAW race.  But somehow, they got the bid anyway (sound familiar!?).  It paid off for Colorado only with the individual win by Mary Decker.  The race turned out to be a good one anyway, with the Penn State Women ending up in third place overall.

Notice the fine finish by honorary Alum Martha White Collins for Virginia! And our first mention of Sue Hollick (Crowe) on these pages.  Did you know that I was responsible for Sue joining the team.  Just as I was instrumental in getting the Wolfe twins to join us!  (Scout's Honor)

Patty Murnane Nosack just misses out on being included in the pantheon of "Greatest" PSU XC runners.  But never fear, there is 2 years of results to come!

 Top Songs 1978:

1. Shadow Dancing - Andy Gibb
2. Night Fever - The Bee Gees
3. You Light Up My Life - Debbie Boone

 With Apologies to all!!!!



Top Movies 1978:

1. Grease   "Grease is the word."
2. Superman    "You'll believe a man can fly."
3. Animal House   "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

I'm Reposting The 1977 AIAW Results Post Because I Added In The Top Movies And Songs

Top Movies 1977:

1. Annie Hall  "Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline." Christopher Walken as Duane Hall.
2. Star Wars   (Now Episode IV...)  "Now, witness the power of this fully operational battle station."
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind   "We are not alone."

 Top Songs 1977:

1. Tonight's the Night - Rod Stewart   (Prom theme from coast to coast.)
2. I Just Want To Be Your Everything - Andy Gibb
3. Best of My Love - Emotions

Andy Gibb.

The AIAW XC Championships started in 1975, but the first All-American Team wasn't chosen until the 1977 race.  That happens to be the year that our very own Kathy Mills Parker dominated the field.  Our 2nd and 3rd team members were very high in the field with Kris Bankes garnering the final of 15 AA positions.  But that left out Liz Berry Larsen, the 16th finisher that day!  Other scorers that day were Hillary Noden and Mary Rawe (Camp Hill's phenom and future wife of our own Coach extraordinaire Tom Rapp).  The sixth and seventh runners were Donna Gardner and Penny Fales.

Tom Rapp, Mary Rawe Rapp with Tom's ex-roommate Larry Mangan.

Here's some bits from the Eastern Kentucky University Special Collections Archive:

1976 Was Also A Wonderful Year: Movies, Songs and, of course, AIAW XC Championship Results!

It was like it was yesterday.  I was almost paying attention to what was going on around me. Gerald Ford was President and Chevy Chase was injuring his back making fun of him.  Woodstock was a distant memory, overtaken by Disco of all things.  I even owned a pair of platform shoes to go with my Leisure Suit.




Top Songs:

1. Silly Love Songs    Wings 
2. Don't Go Breaking My Heart    Elton John and Kiki Dee
3. Disco Lady    Johnny Taylor

Top Movies:

1. Rocky     "You're gonna eat lightning, and crap thunder!"
2.  Taxi Driver    "You looking at me?"
3.  Carrie    "Sorry is the Kool Aid of human emotions."

AIAW XC Championship Results 1976


 Penn State finished 5th in the College Womens Cross Country Championships' second year.  Kathy Mills paced the Lady Lions with her 3rd place effort in Madison, Wisconsin.

Team Finish:

1. Iowa State
2. Cal State Northridge
3. Wisconsin Madison
4. Michigan State 
5. Penn State

Overall Top 5:

1. Julie Brown   Cal State Northridge   16:29.8
2. Carol Cook    Iowa State                    16:39.2
3. Kathy Mills   Penn State                     16:42.1
4. Kim Merritt   Wisconsin- Parkside     16:43.4 
5. Ann Mulrooney Wisconsin-Madison  16:45.3 Kim Merritt, 2000.

Julie Brown.

Penn State AIAW Finishers 1976:

1. Kathy Mills - 3rd             16:42.1
2. Liz Berry - 11th               16:56.8 
3. Donna Gardner - 34th   17:41.2
4. Kris Bankes - 43rd           17:51.5 
5. Lisa Turner - 97th            18:38.4
6. Eileen Meenan - 163rd    19:38.4 
7. Hillary Noden - 222nd     22:54.0

That adds Donna Gardner to the all-time greats and bolsters Kris Bankes' already lofty status!  Coming Soon.

Official Physicist Chimes In! (To Point Out Another Error On My Part!)

Brian Boyer, still our only Group's Official Physicist because Ron Moore apparently can't golf (hee hee hee), chimed in with news of additional Alums on the turf in San Francisco for the Club National Cross Country Meet.  Both Harry Stants and Tom McGlynn placed highly in the Masters Mens 10K with some really good times.

15

Harry Stants

42

Boston Athletic Association-A

33:26

5:23

61

Thomas McGlynn

43

Team runcoach

34:44

5:36

Just Because Indoor Season Has Started, We Shouldn't Forget About Cross Country Yet!

The Penn State Team had its first of the year Indoor Meet, the Blue-White Warmup Meet before Finals and heading home for the holidays.  But there still were some Penn State Alumni running over hill and dale  at the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in San Francisco.  Bridget Franek placed 16th in the Womens 6K in 20:31.  Matt Fischer and Nick Scarpello ran fine races in 40th and 50th place in the Mens 10K.  Casimir Loxsom ran with his Brooks Beast team in a fine tune up for his upcoming Olympic push.

Bridget Franek, 16th.

Cas Loxsom, rear.

275

Casimir Loxsom

24

M

BROOKS Beasts TC-A

34:07

(10K) 5:30

40

Matt Fischer

23

M

Boston Athletic Association-A

30:37

(10K) 4:56

50

Nicholas Scarpello

23

M

Prado Racing Team-A

30:53

(10K) 4:59

16

Bridget Franek

28

F

Team Run Eugene-A

20:31

(6K) 5:31

1975 Was A Wonderful Year. (Well, for the movies anyway. Maybe not the songs!) AIAW Results

Top Movies of 1975:

1.  Jaws    "We're going to need a bigger boat."
2.  Monty Python and the Holy Grail " Come and see the violence inherent in the system."
3.  One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest  "I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this"

Top Songs of 1975:

1.  Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain and Tennille. 
2.  Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell.



3.  Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John

 

But it was also the dawn of big-time Womens College Cross Country.  And Penn State was there (Ames, Iowa) in a big way.  Like a second place finish to the foreign-heavy Iowa State Cyclones!

Penn State:

1.  Kristen Bankes                    3rd   17:12

2.  Elizabeth Cunningham       12th   17:36

3.  Elizabeth Berry                  15th   18:02

4.  Eileen Meenan*                   45th  18:59

5.  Karen Johnson                   62nd  19:26

   
The Top 20:

 *This will add Eileen Meenan to the final listing of the Greatest PSU XC Runners of All-Time - Coming Soon!

AIAW Era Power Rankings Reveal PSU Tops!

First up on our review of the complete AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) Archives supplied by the University of Maryland's Special Collections Archives, is team Power Rankings of Cross Country Teams. (Thanks to the help of Michael Henry!)

Our lowly Math Intern warmed up by using a simple formula for determining the strength of a School's results for all 6 years that Penn State ran Cross Country in the pre-NCAA years.  He simply assigned a point value in reverse order to all participating teams in the field each of the 6 years. There were team totals of 19, 23, 23, 23, 24 and 25 teams for a maximum total of a 137 points.  He then added up the totals to reveal....

Penn State was the top team in the nation despite never winning the title outright.  Two second places, two third places and at least a 5th place finish in each of the years helped the Nittany Lions outpace four-time Champion Iowa State and two-time Champion North Carolina State.  Oregon actually sneaked into second place overall.

The XC Rankings (1975-1980):

 1.   Penn State                 124 points.

 2.   Oregon                      113 points.

 3.   Wisconsin                 110 points.

 4.  Iowa State*                108 points.

 5.   Michigan State            90 points.

 6.  North Carolina State*  71 points.

   7.   UCLA                         70 points.

  8.   Colorado                    63 points. 

  9.   Kansas State               62 points. 

10.  Virginia                       58 points.

11.  Cal Berkeley               53 points.

12.  Tennessee                   47 points.

13.  Arizona                       44 points.

14.  Texas                          42 points.

15.  Colorado State            40 points.

* Multiple team titles.

Finally! The Complete AIAW Results Are Here!

I really do use the computer daily to obtain more knowledge.  With the caveat that misinformation is voluminous, just about everything you can ask can be googled in mere seconds. I prefer Google just because it is the one I started with.  It's why I plan on buying another Palm cellphone as soon as they start selling one again!  It's also why I still have my original Compuserve email address in perpetuity.

But what did us Neanderthals and Idiots do before the internet, you youngsters may ask.  Well, we used the Google of the times, the wonderful folks at the New York Public Library.

For the price of a stamp, and another self-addressed stamped envelope, these incredible people would search for your answers and get back to you with a reply and citations in 2 to 3 weeks!  I used my snail-mail Google many times, and was never disappointed.

So that's why I have granted Officer status to the 2 Archivists at Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Maryland.  Michael Henry will be deemed a Digital Archive god (small g so as not to offend anyone!) for helping me finally round up the complete results of the AIAW era of Penn State Cross Country Championships.  This will put our Math Intern back to the basement for the final calculations for the All-Time Greatest Penn State Women XC Runners.  It will add a few friends to the list too!

Coming Soon!  With complete coverage of all 6 years of top-notch performances!

Coach Groves Wishes Us All Merry Christmas

At least there is somebody willing to buck the trend and actually say "Merry Christmas"!  But then Coach was never quite politically correct. Christmas is never exclusionary in any way.  Everyone is invited, just as our little Group is open to everyone.  Those not celebrating the holiday (or our Group) are always still in our thoughts.  Thanks go to Greg Fredericks who brings us this picture and does so much more for Coach than is imaginable every day.  The best of the Season to all!

Ho, ho, ho. And 12 X 400 in 68-70...

The Brains Of The Atlantic Ten

Let's not forget the brains among us!  Here are some Academic All-Conference Nittany Lions in the Atlantic Ten era:

Artist's Conception.

• 1984 - Bob Hudson and Eric Carter
• 1985 - Bob Hudson
• 1987 - Steve Balkey, David McMillan

More Atlantic Ten Goodness

The Atlantic Ten Conference was an on-again, off-again conference for Penn State Cross Country. It began as the Eastern 8 Conference in 1975 with the original members of Villanova, Duquesne, Penn State, West Virginia, George Washington, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers. Cross Country started in 1978 and Penn State did not participate in some of those years (1979-1981).  But we dominated the conference whenever we were part of it. (1978, 1982-1990)

Championships:

• 1978        28 points.
• 1982        30 points.
• 1986        27 points.
• 1987        21 points.
• 1988        25 points.
• 1989        19 points.
• 1990        19 points.

Individual Champions:

• 1982     Jeff Adkins
• 1986     Eric Carter*
• 1987     Eric Carter
• 1988     Brian Laird
• 1989     Jeff Novak/Doug Walter

• 1990     Mark Wimmer  

* Number 3 on the list of Top 20 Conference Performances, 23:51 at Van Cortlandt Park.

1982 Atlantic Ten Cross Country Champions

Keeper of The Cup Harry Smith brings us this great pic of the 1982 Atlantic Ten Cross Country Champions from Belmont Plateau.

L to R bottom row:

Barry Enright, Jeff Adkins, Ricky Garcia, Clark Haley, Paul Mackley, John Evans, Harry Smith

Top Row L - R:
Rob Whiteside, Mark Overheim, (A-10 Commissioner?), Coach Harry Groves, Nick Kello, Gary Black, Zeb Stewart

My favorite parts of this:

1. Zeb and Harry S. rocking the mustache.
2. Rob rocking the old school gray t-shirt.
3. My first ever mention of Barry Enright on the blog!
4. Gary distracted as always.
5. Nick weighing more than he does NOW!
6. Clark with a hat reminiscent of Bushwood CC. (Looks good on him, though.)
7. Coach Groves with the Dirty Harry sunglasses.

Hanging Out In Florida Ain't A Bad Gig!

Dan Jordan has landed a coveted track and field adviser position at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida.  Dan is, of course, the son of long-time Cross Country Coach Teri Jordan who is the current Coach of the Penn State Ability Athletics team.  Both will likely be joining us at the next Reunion and Coach Groves Golf Tourney in May!

Dan and Teri Jordan.

The Search For Complete AIAW Championship Results Continues: Here's Some "Complete" Results of The 1977 2nd Place Team

The AIAW XC Championships started in 1975, but the first All-American Team wasn't chosen until the 1977 race.  That happens to be the year that our very own Kathy Mills Parker dominated the field.  Our 2nd and 3rd team members were very high in the field with Kris Bankes garnering the final of 15 AA positions.  But that left out Liz Berry Larsen, the 16th finisher that day!  Other scorers that day were Hillary Noden and Mary Rawe (Camp Hill's phenom and future wife of our own Coach extraordinaire Tom Rapp).  The sixth and seventh runners were Donna Gardner and Penny Fales.

Tom Rapp, Mary Rawe Rapp with Tom's ex-roommate Larry Mangan.

Here's some bits from the Eastern Kentucky University Special Collections Archive: