A New Cross Country Season And An Old One Too

 The Dolan Duels were held on Friday. These celebrate Coach Dolan of Lock Haven, who coached PSU and recruited Greg Fredericks to Happy Valley.  Photos by Greg himself!

But just a few years ago, the State College High team with quite a few future (and former!) Nittany Lions had their photo taken.  Photo from future Track Alumni (Golfer) Bill Kvashay.  Included are former PSU Captain Jackson Horner, Carl Bechdel, Howard Triebold, and Bill Kvashay himself.  It is my hope we see Bill and a very special guest when he comes to the 2023 Reunion in August!

Diamonds Are A Guys Best Friend

 Via our West Coast Promoter Mike Fanelli, via Founder and Keeper of the Beer Clark Haley comes this picture from the 1980 Run for the Diamonds in Berwick, PA.  I think both Greg Fredericks and Larry Mangan won diamonds that year.   Not bad for a couple of milers...

Another Nittany Lion Victim Of A Wrong Direction Mishap

This time Tyler McCandless PhD was ushered in the wrong direction at the San Francisco Half-Marathon.  Both he and the second place runner followed the lead bike and missed an out-and-back 0.6 mile section of the race.  I'll let Tyler tell it from his Facebook Post:

In today's San Fran half, I took out the pace aggressively and had a considerable lead early on. I stayed focused on the lead bike ahead but noticed by mile 5 the splits were not adding up to the time in my watch. I ran strong to the finish, splitting between 4:51-5:15 every mile from 3-finish. After crossing the line in 1:02 I told the next official immediately that there's no way the course was a full 13.1 miles. I then turned to the lead cyclist and told him the same thing and we needed to talk to the race organizer immediately. Turns out, the lead cyclist missed taking me and the second place finisher on an out-and-back, cutting the course short by 0.6mi for the two of us. Both him and I were (rightfully) disqualified since we didn't run the full distance. Frustrating to not have the opportunity to achieve goals I had set out for the race, but every setback is the opportunity for a comeback...

I personally witnessed the Philadelphia debacle in 1983 when Bill Kvashay was steered in the wrong direction just before entering Franklin Field for the Marathon victory and 1984 Olympic Trials qualifier.

The most interesting part to me was how well both took their setbacks.  True Nittany Lion poise.

A Hat-Tip To Coach Groves: Penn State Track And Field Alumni Golfers Make Great Coaches: Part 2

It was a bang up day again across the fruited plain for Coach Harry Groves' coached athletes.  Honestly, I think this has a little to do with Coach Groves himself.  He instilled a love of the sport(s) in each and every one of us.  He taught us values, organization, goal-setting, and hard work, even when we disagreed and b*tched about it among ourselves.  All of us came out of it much better off than when we entered his domain.  (Even prodigal sons are welcomed with open arms to our Group!) Here are a few of the recent coaches achieving great things on cross country courses with a little help from Coach's past tutelage:

• Coach Mark Haywood's Class A Camp Hill boys won the PIAA State title for the first time in school history. Here's his wife's thoughts on this.  I was at their wedding and did I mention it was a great affair?

  

  Mark Haywood, right.

• Coach Jayson Jackson's St. Joseph's Academy won the PIAA Class A girls title.  Jayson is another Nittany Lion I have had the pleasure to meet because of my efforts at herding cats to our Reunion and golf outing.  You should think of attending too so you can realize just how great members of our Group are! Absolutely everyone is invited to join.

  

  Jayson Jackson's St. Joseph Academy victors.

• Matt Lincoln's Chandler Wolves won the Arizona Division 1 title.  A Canadian in Arizona via Happy Valley!

  

  Matt Lincoln, right.

• The State College boys were 9th in the PIAA Class AAA race.  Coaches Steve Shisler, Dave Felice and Nick K. keep the Little Lions near the top of the game!

  

  Dave Felice, Steve Shisler and Nick K., right.

• The State College girls were 5th in the PIAA Class AAA race with Artie Gilkes and Rebecca Donaghue guiding them.

  

  Artie Gilkes, Rebecca Donaghue, left.

• Dominic Hockenberry repeated as Class A Champion and will be headed to Syracuse in the Fall.  Dominic was is coached by Bill Kvashay until his retirement this year.

  

  Bill Kvashay, left.

• Gettysburg's lone runner placed 10th in the PIAA Class AA race.  He is coached by Group Friend and William and Mary liaison Brian Mount.

  

  Brian Mount, center.

• I'm sure I missed some.  Let me know!
• John Mahoney, Assistant Coach of Central Bucks West, helped his team to 3rd in the PIAA AAA race.  (Thanks to Beth Shisler for the update!) 
• Here's an update from Tom Rapp on his season: 
  

  Hey!

   

  I wanted to bring you up to speed on our recently-concluded season. After winning the state meet last year, we stepped into this year knowing we were a bit depleted by graduation. Add in a couple of injuries and illness and basically we lost numbers 1,2 5, 6 and 7 from last year. Still we had a very successful season winning our league, district and regional (SW Ohio - one fourth of the state) meets. We scored the second lowest total ever at regionals - 35 points.

   

  We finished runner up at state to Cleveland St. Ignatius, a perennial power currently ranked #10 in the country. We actually scored 25 points less than our championship team last year but couldn't quite match St. Ignatius. In Ohio, only two teams make the podium and receive medals and trophies. We were thrilled to be one of the two. We have been on the podium three out of the last four years. I feel like this might have been my best team ever, but part of winning a championship is picking the right year to be good. Guess we didn't quite do that. We lacked a solid number one and had four different guys at that spot this year. However, our 1-5 split was usually between 15 and 25 seconds. Lots of pack running which made it fun, but sometimes hard to coach during a race because they would all zoom by at the same time - tough to give individual instructions like that.

   

  Anyway, thanks for reading.

   

  Run Happy!

   

  Tom

More Photos From Everywhere For Memorial Day

State College High 4 x 800 Relay, 7:41, coached by Steve Shisler.

PIAA 3200M Gold Medalist Dominic Hockenberry, coached by Bill Kvashay.

State College Triple Jump Gold, coached by Artie Gilkes.

Photo from Greg Reyner.

Photo from Greg Reyner.

Photo from Greg Reyner.

Photo from Greg Reyner.

Paul Souza and Mark Hawkins at the Indy 500.

The Coach/Athlete Relationship Is Complex

 It's a small world.  And one with way more than just 50 shades of gray.

Turns out Tim Johnson's dad  Jim Johnson ran for coach Jackson Horner and Assistant Coach Steve Gentry with a PSU teammate of mine, Bill Kvashay.  And he kept a detailed journal of his thoughts at the time. Tim shared some of them with me, pointing out the complexities of the coach/athlete dynamic.  Old-school philosophies may be few and far between nowadays, but I'm not sure that's a good thing...

"This journal obviously was written by an eleventh-grader, notably expressing the self-absorption of any teenager then or now. But it definitely expresses the emotions, both good and bad, of a teenager striving for personal and team success."   -Jim Johnson.

Anyone who takes half an hour to state who will go to the following day’s meet should not be heralded as a speaker, but there we all were, huddled around him, even those who knew they had no chance of making the meet. Jackson Horner is a good coach, an extremely good coach, as his record at State College High will attest. The whole track team can respect him as a coach. Why is it then that everybody fears him? During the season he probably affects our lives more than our family. We even feel nervous eating a doughnut if there is a chance he is around, even though there are no rules about eating on our team. Many conversations between teammates are about his bad points, but constant glances over the shoulder show that he is not forgotten. One thing every team member tries to avoid is getting into a talking match with him. As far as we know, the record is held by Jon Forster, with a discussion concerning student activities besides track; the talk lasted about forty-five minutes while the rest of us were jogging around an ice-covered track. Acting as a kind of buffer between the team and Horner is [assistant coach] Steve Gentry. He will joke with us about Horner when he is not there. However, when Bill Halpenny, a slightly built but good runner wanted to quit and told Mr. Gentry to tell Horner, Gentry wouldn’t do it. (After trying to get other team members tell Horner, Halpenny called Horner about a week later. Horner gave him a half-hour lecture and hung up.) Thus one can get a glimpse of the terror Horner installs in his runners and even his sub-coaches. 

Horner once was a state champion in the mile and a Golden Gloves boxing champ, but has since deteriorated physically. He still is pretty loose and spry, but has gained a large number of inches on his waistline, which Gentry refers to as the “Horner pot.” Horner still has enough left in him to chase his runners around the track a short distance, hitting or pushing them if they are not running to his liking. When Horner is mad, everyone watches out. On one indoor track day my sophomore year, as he came walking up to the track, the whole track team was kicking around a soccer ball. (The addition of Tom Szlega and other members of the “half track” men made things a little looser.) Horner ran up to the soccer ball and grabbed it. At first we though he was kidding, but all of us caught the evil glint in his eye. He got ready to kick the a thousand miles away, gave a mighty swish of his foot, missed the ball, and and landed flat on his back in the snow. All at once, each member of the team turned away and laughed, some out loud. Horner turned on Bill Dixon, a devoted runner who gave everything he had every race. It was the only time I ever saw Horner yell at Bill Dixon. Very luckily the track was snow covered and the only words Horner said to us after that were “Get jogging” and “Go on down.”

 Today was Altoona. Altoona didn’t have enough guys to run two races, so everyone ran in the varsity race. During the race, two guys stole some of our warmup fleece. While the team went to the school to get dressed, Horner was following a chain of witnesses beginning with a little boy on a bicycle. When we again met up with Horner and asked about the boys that took the fleece, Horner replied, “I scared the sh*t out of them.” With the aid of the Altoona coach, he got our fleece back. (Yea, Horner.)

"The stories about horner that my dad shared with me are what framed my own understanding of my own high school coach, and then Coach Groves." - Tim Johnson. 

Track Alumni (Golfer) Coaches a Winner: Maybe More to Come?

One of the upper-classmen I looked up to at PSU was Bill Kvashay.  Bill was an 800M runner (among other events) at State College High back in the days when color photos were sorta kinda new.   hee hee He went on to the Armed Services (I think Marines?) before enrolling at PSU.  I believe Coach Groves himself was instrumental in having Bill try out for the team.  (all of these facts are up for review and correction.) Following graduation, he won the Penn Relays Marathon in a Olympic Trials qualifying time, except a policeman sent him the wrong dirction through campus 300 meters from the finish.  He has been a fine coach since and a teacher of calculus.  Someone we all can really look up to.  An example of the upper echelons of what our group is all about.

Bill now coaches at Lake Lehman High School and must be one heck of a coach.  I've kept up with him sporadically via the interwebby thingie and occasionally seeing him at Track and XC meets over the years.

One of Bill's athletes, Dominic Hockenbury just won the Class AA 3200M in 9:17.18, a 24 second PR at the PIAA meet.  Dominic is a Sophomore.  Congrats to Bill and Dominic.  I add that he would make a very fine Nittany Lion.

Dominic Hockenbury with Coach Bill Kvashay, right.

I'm Still Working On the Photos and Stories From the Reunion

I actually have the day off and will eventually get to the photos from this weekend.  That is, after I pay all my late bills, feed the animals, water the plants and take a nap!

So until then, let's put up a list of people that couldn't make it and had a good reason:

1. Steve Shisler and Beth Shisler were at the Big Ten Championships watching their son Alex Shisler score points for the Nittany Lions.  Excuse Accepted.
2. Brian Boyer had business requiring knowledge of Physics in New Mexico.  Excuse Accepted.
3. Steve Balkey had a son graduating from College.  Excuse Accepted.
4. Paul Mundy had a daughter being married. Excuse Accepted.
5. Bill Kvashay and Mark Haywood were coaching at Districts.  Excuses Accepted.
6. Gary Black had business requiring extensive travel. Excuse (reluctantly) Accepted.
7. Darryl Jones had Graduation duties at Gettysburg College. Excuse Accepted.
8. And last, but certainly not least, Phil Passen was in Israel and even supplied proof with a Wrist Band pic at the Dead Sea Scroll Museum! Excuse Accepted.

Rockin the Band!

Sometimes the Simple Things are Best

My post on the NVTC Marathon in 1978 brought this photo of the 6th place award in the 1976 NVTC Marathon from Bill Kvashay.  The best prizes are the ones you still have from more than 30 years ago! Somehow he didn't run the 1978 edition the rest of us were forced to run.  I figure he either ran a different marathon or was "luckily" injured!

Many (Most?) PSU Track Alums Are Smarter Than I

That's Bill Kvashay and his 2012 High School Calculus Class.  If I had only known, I would have asked Bill for help with the worst of my college classes!  (But what I lacked in mathematical intellectual prowess I more than made up for in my Human Sexuality Class.  That's the one where there were 200 actual students in the class but they had to hold it in an auditorium seating 400!)

For the male youngsters out there, the secret to attracting  cheerleaders and sorority sisters is PUPPIES!  It took until 20 years after college to figure that one out.

How to Miss the Olympic Qualifying Time: Part 2

First, Bill Kvashay missed the 1984 Marathon Olympic Trial time because he was turned away from Franklin Field as he was about to enter for the 3/4 lap to the finish of his 2:16 triumph.

Fast forward to this year and Tyler McCandless's one second miss because a lead bike took him off course at the San Fransisco Half Marathon.

But the best way to miss qualifying might be this guy's effort to drink 13 12-ounce beers while running the same race.  Vomiting 3 times and blacking out between the 11th and 12th miles kind of makes it hard to run under 1:05:00. ( More like 5:00:00, if you call what he did a success!)  Read the whole harrowing tale, and don't try this at home.

Memories of the Penn Relays Marathon (RIP!)

I previously related some of my experiences of the marathon (mostly of following other teammates to the finish line despite my PR in 1979!).  I also talked a little bit about the 1982 finish where Bill Kvashay was directed through the campus at the entrance to the Stadium, thwarting his 2:17 or 2:18 time and a Olympic marathon trial berth.  Certainly the longest 300 meters of his career!  That same race saw Barb Black enter the stadium with the whitest complexion I have ever witnessed.  Take a white sheet of paper and bleach it and you still wouldn't quite capture the whiteness.  Her PR placed high in the field despite the agonizing last miles, and she soon regained her normal color!  It is a testament to her fortitude that she continues marathons to this day.

Here's some more memories of the 1982 Penn Relays Marathon from Hall of Honor inductee Harry Smith:

I have no (good) memories of Penn Relays. I ran the marathon there in 1982!

But seriously, my memory of training and running with the Wolfe bothers (Al and Jeff) who guided Bill Malchano, Geoff Root, Jim Sellers and me all through to personal bests that year was a good memory!  Brad Althouse ran also but he decided to take off at mile 2 and we reeled him in between halfway and mile 15 as he had the proverbial bear on his back already from going too hard too early
We took the "leisurely" 6 minute pace through 5 (31:00) and 10 (61:30) as well as the halfway (1:19:20) as we started to pick it up a bit after 10 and even more so after the halfway marker.  I recall that my second 10 mile segment was 54:50 (which I only calculated well after the race) knowing I came through 20 miles at 1:56:20.

But the real memory was believing I had missed the entrance to Franklin Field. As I approached the stadium and the finish, after not remembering seeing any other runners since mile marker 21 when I passed one walking it in, I did not realize  the tricks my mind was playing on me (at this point in a marathon) having only "run" one previously and not counting the Nittany Valley Track Club December marathons "just for fun"!  As I started counting the corners as I ran around f Franklin Field knowing that at any moment I would go through a tunnel entrance to the stadium and onto the track to finish to a wildly cheering crowd of family and friends (or about 200 spectators). However, as one approaches Franklin Field from a 5 way intersection, I had not noticed that you go by the open stadium entrance first and make an entire loop around the outside of the stadium prior to entering for the final 300M on the track to the finish line. So I started counting the corners of the stadium. 1 and 2 on that first street and then a long straightaway. So my mind told me pick it up and make it around that corner up ahead you will turn right into the stadium. Well I made that 3rd turn or corner and no one was there directing me into the stadium. So I jogged on down to the 4th corner and that stadium door was closed. Do I turn back or go froward? The last time I heard a place I was in 21st or was it 22nd some 8 miles ago. I knew there were 25 medals to be awarded and my mind told me that no one had passed me in those last miles so not wanting to lose my chance at medaling at Penn, I went forward but this was the long South side of Franklin Field. Now I was tired and my mind told me I was not being allowed into the stadium. But I continued on and rounded what I felt was the 5th turn and finally the opening to the stadium was there with a race marshall directing me to run through the tunnel and finish my 3/4 lap backwards to the finish. 2 hours 37 minutes and 27 seconds was my finish time good for 13th place - so there must have been some runners who dropped out or I passed and lost count (probably both likely happened). The Penn Relays Marathon was "memorable" or at least the last lap outside of Franklin Field is one that I will never forget as I have never run a marathon since!

Regards,
Harry Smith

Blasts From the Past!

A weird series of events led me to cruise through the Interwebbie Thingie where I came across this gem of an article from the Centre Daily Times archives.

At the Second Annual Arts Festival Ten-Miler, PSU Track Alumni Golfers were out in force. This would be 1977 or 1978, well before the dawn of breathable fabrics, colors and probably when dirt came to be made. Even Coach Groves tickled the pavement at exactly 6:00 pace.

Greg Fredericks, our Course Marshall (among other duties!) defended his title in impressive fashion, blazing a 47:37. Charlie Maquire came in second in 50:19. I wish Charlie was still around to enhance our group. He was one of the three toughest runners I ever saw. (I witnessed him run a sub 9:00 2-mile 8 years after college on minimal training.)

Other PSU Track Alumni Golfers included in the trailing pack:

• Jim "Frit" Cooper (on our Wish List) 51:37
• Tim Backenstose 53:49
• Gary Black 55:10
• Hugh Hamill 55:32 (Also on our Wish List)
  
• Mark Parker 56:06 (Nike COO and on our Wish List)
• Bill Kvashay 58:30 (you heard about his Penn Relays Marathon "Win" here)
• Kathy Mills (Namesake of our newest award for the Most Valuable Woman Golfer and former World Record Holder in the 5000M)
• Coach Harry Groves 60:00 (I wonder who took off the extra seconds on that one!)
• Bob Hudson 60:57 (as an 8th grader!)
  

Runners Sent the Wrong Direction!

The recent NCAA Division 2 XC fiasco brought back some scary memories of another Penn Relays Marathon. At the Div. 2 Regionals this past weekend, lead runners were sent the wrong way, well into the race. They backtracked through the woods and rejoined the race at a narrow area. Pandemonium ensued, and the race was called at the 3 mile mark. It was then rerun 2 hours later! Looking at the Map, I wonder how anyone expected an error wouldn't be made!

At the 1982 Penn Relays I was waiting in the stadium for my future wife to finish (she was in the top 5 most of the race!). The lead runners were announced and placed on the scoreboard. Lo and behold, the leader was Bill Kvashay, PSU '79, about to run a sub 2:18 marathon. But he never appeared until the 2:39 or so mark. Virtually no one knows this other than me and Bill, but he was sent through campus at the entrance to the Stadium by a policeman! The Penn Relay officials never even apoligized to Bill. I have seen Bill only once since then, at the PIAA State meet, he coaches a team from out Pittsburgh Wilkes-Barre way. He didn't seem bitter about it at all. He is a better man than I. Addendum: It would have been a time that would have qualified him for the Olympic Trials Marathon in 1984 (the year Alberto Salazar cut thousands of little holes in his shirt to combat the heat, and slumped to a fifteenth place finish in 2:14:19).