An Improbable Win

How can a team that came in third in the District 6 Championships and failed to advance to the State Championships end up winning it all in the State?  Can't happen, right?  (LetsRun.com thread HERE)

Wrong, because it just did this weekend.  And Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golfer Jayson Jackson helped make it happen.  He coaches the St. Joseph's Academy XC team in State College.  And even if the girls' team failed to advance to the State meet, 5 of the team members did make it on the individual requirements to make the trip.  And 5 runners make up a scoring team, so...

According to the rules of the PIAA, they count as a team in the scoring.  They then went on to run the races of their lives and not only beat both District 6 teams, but every other team in the single-A race, and climbed to the top of the podium!  Notice that Mark Haywood's Camp Hill team is third.

The coaching reach of Harry Groves extends to its 4th or 5th generation!  Well done.

 1 St Josephs Cath (6)      93    4   19   21   22   27            
  2 Marion Center (6)       116   14   18   23   29   32   49   59 
  3 Camp Hill (3)           119    9   13   17   37   43   64   73  

The Rest Of The Story

We have already covered the news of St. Joseph Academy's victory in the PIAA A Cross Country Girls Championships.  Coached by Jayson Jackson and Matt Groves, the Lady Wolves also had the overall winner in Sera Mazza.

And it turns out that the team had an extra motivation for performing well.  Coach Jackson's newborn infant Ophelia was hospitalized due to respiratory issues due to her premature birth in the weeks leading up to the State Meet.  I am no stranger to the issue of premature birth.  Daughter the Elder came 9 1/2 weeks early and spent her first 6 weeks in the ICU.  She is currently in her PSU Junior year studying wildlife and fishery science.  Hang in there Jayson!

Jayson Jackson, top left, Matt Groves, bottom left.

"Running For Ophelia"

If The Election Doesn't Destroy Us, Maybe CERN Will: (With State College XC Accolades)

The election is thankfully over today.  And while I believe this is the dawn of a new era in the USA, those doomsday forecasters prophesying the coming of SMOD (Smoking Meteor of Death) were wrong, so maybe the Large Hadron Collider in the Swiss/French alps may have to come to their rescue.

An act of Physicists?

A bizarre conspiracy theory has it that the latest plasma blasting experiment at the CERN facility is causing the spike in significant earthquakes in Italy.  The original experiments before the power was turned up failed to manufacture the proposed black holes, so earthquakes will have to do for those determined to see the world end.

And hats off for the State College High girls team led by Rebecca Donaghue and Artie Gilkes who placed 4th in the AAA XC Championships.

Special accolades to Jayson Jackson's and Matt Groves' St. Joseph Academy girls team, PIAA A XC Champions!

Steeplers In The News

Jayson Jackson reminded me of the great article in The Penn Stater magazine about Horace Ashenfelter III. Thanks, Jayson!  I know we have featured Horace many times, and even included video of his 1952 gold medal race, but the link gave us a short clip of his last barrier leap before crossing the finish line. And his clearance of the barrier would not earn a gold medal for style, but once over it, it no longer mattered!

 “He almost forgot to jump over it,” remembers his wife, Lillian.

Today's steeple finals will include 2012 Olympic finalist Bridget Franek, attempting to complete her "comeback".   10:48PM (ET)

And here's a pic of former PSU Rugby's Dane Rauschenberg (and honorary member!) wearing his Alumni Singlet for the first time in a Half Marathon!   He is a great ambassador for our sport and Penn State!

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

 There were Turkey Trots everywhere yesterday.  Here are a few of them:

• Boalsburg Turkey Trot with Jayson Jackson in charge continues to grow. Not sure who else among our group may have participated.
• Berwick Run For The Diamonds:  We were at least represented by honorary member Dane Rauschenberg.

Dane Rauschenberg with Ed Whitlock.

•  Ashenfelter 8K Classic in Glen Ridge, NJ  The greatest of all Nittany Lions was there again this year.

Horace Ashenfelter III with Tom Fleming.

•  The Shirley Mae Taylor Turkey Trot in New Cumberland, PA  There were Fullers and the Fuller Harem and Jeff Sanden and daughter Carissa. 

  

  Jeff and Carissa Sanden, both age group winners.

  
  

•  The York YMCA Turkey Trot again had a huge crowd of more than 4,700 runners in downtown York.  Daughters the Younger and Elder were both beaten like a rented mule by their mother Barb Black!  ("But I wasn't really trying." was no excuse!)

• Tyler McCandless was second at his Turkey Trot in Dallas, TX. 

  

  Tyler MCandless, center.

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