Exclusive Pics From The NCAA Regionals

Thanks to Frit Cooper, we have these pics from the NCAA Regional XC Meet.  The Womens team won for the 3rd straight year (with 2 of their top runners scratched for the season!) and the Men placed 2 in the top 10, sending Timothy McGowan and Colin Abert to Nationals in addition to the 7 women.

Pos.	Penn State Women	Time
2	Jillian Hunsberger	20:05.4
5	Alison Willingmyre	20:15.1
6	Kathryn Munks	20:15.8
8	Danae Rivers	20:17.6
10	Greta Lindsley	20:21.6
1st	Penn State	31
Pos.	Penn State Men	Time
6	Timothy McGowan	30:40.1
9	Colin Abert	30:43.5
20	John McGowan	30:52.6
43	Andrew Sell	31:21.8
53	Bobby Hill	31:33.8
5th	Penn State	131

Athlete Of The Week And Animals Are Safe!

Jillian Hunsberger was just named Athlete of the Week by the USTFCCCA!

NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN – Jillian Hunsberger, Penn State

Senior | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Make it two in a row for Jillian Hunsberger.
After winning the Dolan Duals two weeks ago, Hunsberger returned to the top of the podium this past weekend at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational. Hunsberger finished in 21:07 – three seconds ahead of Syracuse’s Paige Stoner – and topped a field of 85, which included the likes of No. 11 Penn State and No. 26 Georgetown.
Hunsberger earned All-America status last year in cross country and is carrying over a lot of momentum from a strong track season. She finished 10th in the 10,000-meter finals at the 2017 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

And despite being right next to the epicenter of the Hurricane Irma hit, the Key Deer have emerged from the decimated brush on Big Pine Key! There were only 1,000 left on Earth before the storm hit.  There's at least 4 remaining.

Key Deer Emerge

And all of Hemingway's 54 polydactyl cats we also unscathed as Key West was only slightly damaged.  Hemingway's House was practically untouched.

Cats!

How Did The Women Do At The NCAA Championships?

The big answer is tied for 29th place.

Tori Gerlach used her extra eligibility to All-American effect by placing third in the 300M SC! And Danielle Gibson used her first effort in the Triple Jump to place sixth for the second All-American for PSU!  Both Tori and Danielle PRed in their Championship performances.  Coach Groves would be proud.  Only Tori PRed, (Thanks Mimi McGarry McCloskey!) Coach Groves is still proud.  Blog interns will be denied soup at lunch for the next week. 

600M Record Holder Cas Loxsom with Tori Gerlach.

The Team Rundown:

• 800M - Danae Rivers     19th   2:07.17
• 3000M SC - Tori Gerlach      3rd   9:46.76
• 5000M - Tessa Barrett     20th   16:18.86
• 10000M - Jillian Hunsberger     10th   33:29.40
• Pole Vault - Hannah Mulhern      NH
• Triple Jump - Dannielle Gibson    6th   43' 10"
• Shot Put - Obeng Marfo   19th   53' 3/4"

Fast Times In The Ninth Circuit

There's plenty of things happening in the Ninth Circuit lately.  But there isn't any dispute concerning the winner of the Womens 5000M at the Husky Classic Invitational yesterday!

Tessa Barrett led the way with a phenomenal PR of 15:51.32 and Jillian Hunsberger ran her best ever with a 16:08.61! Tessa's time puts her in the top echelon of college athletes for the year and #3 ever for PSU.

Tessa Barrett, Coach Reck and Jillian Hunsberger

Disappointing, But....

It didn't turn out quite like they hoped, but there was a silver lining at the end anyway.

Tessa Barrett ended up a DNF, although I did see her listed among the leaders until the 4K mark, right with her 2 teammates, Jillian Hunsberger and Elizabeth Chikotas.  There hasn't been an explanation forthcoming, but we all hope Tessa is OK. With the loss of their #1 runner, PSU finished a disappointing 18th in the team competition.

Elizabeth Chikotas ended up in 15th place and Jillian Hunsberger 36th.  That makes for 2 All-Americans for PSU!

Coach Gondak and Coach Reck surround PSU's latest All-Americans.

Final Results For PSU At The NCAA Regionals

Women 

  1 Penn State               36    1    3    4   12   16   60   80    20:32    1:06
  2 Villanova                93    7    8   17   22   39   40   43    21:05    1:04
  3 Penn                     99    6   10   20   28   35   56   69    21:06    1:08
  4 West Virginia           112    2   11   21   37   41   47   82    21:07    1:36
  5 Georgetown              141   15   24   26   30   46   74   83    21:25    0:47
  6 Bucknell                174    9   19   33   42   71   73  111    21:30    1:26

1. Penn State
    1  Tessa Barrett, So          20:00    5:22
    3  Elizabeth Chikotas, Jr     20:17    5:26
    4  Jillian Hunsberger, Jr     20:23    5:28
   12  Kathryn Munks, Fr          20:53    5:36
   16  Greta Lindsley, So         21:06    5:39
   60  Victoria Crawford, So      22:03    5:54
   80  Julie Kocjancic, Sr        22:19    5:59
Total Time = 1:42:39     Total Places = 36

 Men

  1 Georgetown               66    2    7   11   16   30   35   46    31:06   0:45
  2 Navy                     74    8   12   14   19   21   23   33    31:10    0:17
  3 Princeton                97    3    9   18   22   45   58   74    31:13    0:55
  4 Penn                    111    6   10   28   29   38   55   68    31:18    0:39
  5 Penn State              190   15   27   32   49   67   79  109    31:37    0:56
  6 Bucknell                193   20   39   42   44   48   50   63    31:36    0:29

5. Penn State
   15  Timothy McGowan, Jr        31:13    5:02
   27  Colin Abert, So            31:24    5:04
   32  John McGowan, So           31:29    5:05
   49  Brandon Tubby, Fr          31:47    5:07
   67  Billy McDevitt, Fr         32:08    5:11
   79  Conrad Lippert, Sr         32:21    5:13
  109  Bobby Hill, Jr             33:15    5:22
Total Time = 2:38:01     Total Places = 190
 

Distance Night Performances

Here's all the PSU related distance results from the 2016 Penn Relays by place (just to mess with your mind).

• Tessa Barrett                  2nd place   5000M        16:08.11
• Jillian Hunsberger          4th place  5000M    16:27.39
• Brian Fuller (Alumni)    7th place  5000M    14:38.25
• Colin Abert                     9th place   5000M         14:10.66
• Ean Disilvio                    9th place   3000M SC    9:06.25
• Timothy McGowan       11th place   5000M      14:10.94
• John Dugan                    13th place  3000M SC    9:13.90
• Kyle Dawson (Alumni) 14th place   5000M  14:46.33
• John McGowan             20th place   5000M     14:23.09
• Wade Endress                24th place   5000M     14:28.83

And a special note for Don Skerpon's daughter Elyse Skerpon, who was 2nd in her heat of the 400M H!

• Elyse Skerpon                32nd place  400M H     1:03.53
• Rachel DeCecco             44th place   400M H     1:04.89

XC Season Is Over: Onward To Track!

The Nittany Lion Women ended up 16th in the nation.  A fine season overall.  Big Ten Champions, Mid-Atlantic Region Champions and ranked as high as 9th overall in the USTFCCA voting.

                                      38- Tessa Barrett 20:26.7
                                      98 -Tori Gerlach 20:49.3
                                    102- Elizabeth Chikotas 20:50.4
                                    151- Jillian Hunsberger 21:12.8
                                    157 -Stephanie Aldrich 21:15.1

Billy Francis! Lady Lions!

Tessa Barrett, All-American.

Billy Francis and his Syracuse mates.

Our very own Undersecretary of Fun Billy Francis drove 1,700 miles to watch his graduate school mates from Syracuse win the title in an upset only to those who weren't paying attention. He found the time to charm the Lady Lions also! Including PSU's newest All-American XC runner, Tessa Barrett. (thanks to Coach Reckart for the pic!)