Penn State Is 800U - Penn Relays 2022 Edition

 

Penn State showed up in fine shape for the return of the Penn Relays 4 x 800M Championships of America.  The Women showed everyone what they can do at the big meets by winning the race in splendid fashion.  Ohio State put up a good fight, but the deep Lady Lions prevailed in 8:24.49.  I am trying to verify the actual order of athletes, but Rachel Gearing, Allison Johnson, Victoria Tachinski and Victoria Vanrielle  Victoria Vanriele (2:08.37), Rachel Gearing (2:04.27), Madaline Ullom (2:06.92), and Victoria Tachinski (2:04.95)were listed.  This was PSU's second wheel of the meet! (with the Sprint Medley Relay on Friday, another fine performance for 800U)  Madeline Ullom is an Ohio hs star coached by teammate Tom Rapp!

Splits in reverse order were: 2:08.37 / 2:04.27 / 2:06.92 / 2:04.95

The Men followed that up with a second place finish to the overwhelming favorite Ole Miss. They were rumored to be eyeing the Penn Relays Record of 7:11.17 of the 1985 Penn State squad, but came up short.  Two members of that 85 squad were in the stands enjoying the Carnival; Steve Shisler and  Vance Watson.  PSU ran to a fine 7:17.86 time, a time that has won quite a few Championships in the past.  Listed as running were Olivier Desmeules, Darius Smallwood, Evan Dorenkamp, and Domenic Perretta. Yukichi Ishii, Olivier Desmeules, Darius Smallwood and Domenic Perretta

Splits in reverse order were:   1:48.85 / 1:49.98 / 1:48.67 / 1:50.37

Coach Of The Year, Athletes Of The Year, And Another 800M Champion!

First up, Artie "Knute" Gilkes became the PIAA Boys Indoor Coach of the Year with his Little Lions victory at the State Meet.  Artie excels at coaching the jumps, of all things, but Nick K. tells us he gives a very good "Gipper" speech as well!  Congrats Artie.  And don't forget to golf this year!

While there is no video, I had the pleasure of hearing Artie’s pre-meet speech.  He comprehensively laid out the scoring possibilities so the team could see for themselves what had to be done in a way that empowered them to take control of the outcome.  No emotional BS.  

(Steve) Shisler’s mission was to re-establish, in his words, “a culture of achievement.”  Gilkes is extending and deepening that ethos.  As an SC alumnus, I am really grateful the young athletes again have outstanding coaches - including the event coaches, who genuinely care about guiding kids to steeper life trajectories through track and field.  During that championship Sunday, one could literally see guys mature and take a big step forward as they competed - not everything went as planned - and then put their hands on the prize.  Inspiring!     -Nick K.

State College Shows Off Depth

Not to be outdone by Penn State Track and Field Alumni, two present team members garnered awards for the season as well.  

Maddie Holmberg continued her great career and won the Mid-Atlantic Field Athlete of the Year.  She then set a PR at the NCAA Championships to place 9th in the Pentathlon. 

 Last, but not least, Danae Rivers backed up her Mid Atlantic Track Athlete of the Year award by winning the 800M at the NCAA Championships!

Danae used the tried and true tactic used by Dave Wottle in 1972, even splits, which took her from the middle of the pack to the victory in dramatic fashion.  Thus accentuating PSU is 800U! 

 Danae wins the 800M

Homecoming Means Coming "Home" And A Visit With Coach Groves

A Home meet during Homecoming week means a Friday meet.  That means many of us can't swing it. But many certainly did!  Yesterday's Penn State National attracted many Track alums.

The meet went well, especially for the Women, who topped all teams, multiple ranked teams.

In her fourth race donning the Blue & White, Julia Paternain crossed the finish line in 20:30, which marks her third win of the season, two of which have come at the Blue-White Golf Course. Just 11 seconds after Paternain finished the race, sophomore Alison Willingmyre (Wernersville, Pa.) completed the 6k course in 20:41 to finish fifth overall.
Along with Paternain and Willingmyre, Danae Rivers (Derby, Conn.) and Kathryn Munks (Chester, N.Y.) both tallied top-15 finishes. For Rivers, she ran 20:48 to place seventh and Munks took 15th in 21:01. Moria O'Shea (Greensburg, Pa.) rounded out the scoring for the Blue & White as she ran 21:16 to finish 35th.

In the men's 5.2-mile run, the Nittany Lions ran to a 10th-place finish as a team with a score of 252 points. Individually, Colin Abert (Easton, Pa.) paced the Nittany Lion harriers as he placed 10th with a time of 25:17.
In addition to Abert, Alex Tomasko (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) finished 43rd with a time of 25:47 and John McGowan (Northport, N.Y.) took 53rd in 25:54. Underclassmen Isaac Davis (Cogan Station, Pa) and Owen Wing (State College, Pa.) rounded out the scoring as they finished 71st (26:08) and 87th (26:14), respectively.

Homecoming Visit: Steve Walsh and Dan Curran. Photo by Greg Fredericks.

Julia Paternain. Photo by Tom Shiffer.

Womens Start. Photo by Tom Shiffer.

Steve Shisler, Bob Hudson, John McGraw and Tom Shiffer.

This Palindrome May Be Penn Relay's Best Record!

Yesterday was 7/11/17.  And that's 71117 both frontward and backward!  So I decided to steal Steve Shisler's Facebook post yesterday to highlight the significance of the event.

It is also the Penn Relay's 4 x 800M Collegiate Record by the Penn State quartet of Vance Watson, Steve Shisler, Randy Moore and Chris Mills.  7:11.17  The record is now 32 years old. Maybe the last time Coach Groves cried too!

Here are a few other remembrances of the relay victory in 1985:

"The Race" 1

"The Race" 2

"The Race" 3

PSU Is 800U: Generations

Penn State Track Alumni (Golfers) are excelling in coaching all over the United States!  And although high school and College coaching keep some of them from coming to our Reunion and Golf Tourney, we sure like to include them in our ranks as often as possible.

And all of them showed up at the PIAA Championships with some 800M runners worthy of 800U interest.

It was a battle for all 4 legs, but Central Bucks West nipped State College for the victory in the 4 X 800M Relay!

That's John Mahoney, coach of the middle distance crew of Brian Baker, Luke Fehrman, Alec Hofer and Jake Claricurzio.  (7:40.14)

State College (7:41.42) anchor Nick Feffer duals Central Bucks West's Jake Claricurzio.

State College is coached by Steve Shisler and Chris Cipro.  Other State College runners were Owen Wing, Chris Di Perna and Joey Feffer.

Coach Groves Gets Some All-American Visits During Olympics Time

In addition to the daily visit from our own All-American Course Monitor Greg Fredericks, Coach Groves also received some additional visits from several others while enjoying some fine Olympics Track and Field Action this weekend.

Here Coach shows off our group's highest honor, The Rusty Boot, to Steve Balkey and Steve Shisler, among others.  Bob Hudson was also around.

Fill me in on who the others are!

News from Steve Balkey, always right on top of things:  That's David McMillen, center, a formidable 1500M to 10K runner from South Africa, and Randy Moore, right!  I was ashamed to not recognize Randy, but I haven't seen him in quite a while.  Wonder if he remembers that great Christmas Party in Center City Philly we had in 1984-1985 or so?  And I'll bet he doesn't recognize me either!

And Phil Caraher and family made the long trip from North Carolina to see Coach.

Phil Caraher with a new T-Shirt!

But that wasn't all for Phil, as he apparently went golfing with Coach Bill Whittaker.  I have always said that it just isn't fair practicing for the next Coach Groves Tournament!

All Kinds Of News

More awards for Stephen Shisler, as he wins the Pennsylvania Outdoor High School Coach of the Year Award from the USTFCCCA!

Coach of the Year!
And Here!

Dave Felice (center) with Steve Shisler and Nick K. (right)

And Tyler McCandless has thrown his cowboy hat into the ring and will be entering the New York City Marathon.  Good luck, Tyler.

 New York Marathon Field

Coach Groves continues to receive multitudes of visitors to his Juniper Village home.  Recently Track and Field aficionado Dan Curran (father of Coach Mary Kate Curran!) stopped by for more great track and field stories.

800U News Keeps Getting Better!

And there is even more to come!

First up, Steve Shisler was just named Coach of the Year for the PTFCA!  His State College Boys team took home the team title by 1 point at the PIAA AAA Championships last week for the first time in school history.  The fact that he golfed with us and attended our Reunion with his busy schedule is a testament to his organizational skills!

His 4 x 800M team won with a splendid 7:37.25 time, #1 US, which I am sure pleases him more than just about anything could.  State College is 800HS!

Alex Milligan, anchor.

 And in other news....

Olympic Champion Dave Wottle has accepted an honorary membership in 800U!  With his school,  Bowling Green University, without a Mens track team (yeah, they have a Womens team!), I thought he might like to join with us.  That means he is on a team with his Bowling Green mentor, Sid Sink, and his 1972 Olympic opponent Yevgeni Arzhanov, who joined us a few months ago.

Dave Wottle, right, with Jim Ryun, left.

There will be more to come, I promise.

State College Is 800HS

Stephen Shisler has turned his experience and knowledge of the 800M to good use as the coach of State College High's middle distance crew.  The Little Lions invaded the Millrose Games and NYC's Armory and won their heat of the 4 x 800M in 7:51.59.  

A Very Good Day At The Penn State National

I had the pleasure to spend a long amount of time with some of my favorite people yesterday at the Penn State National Indoor Meet.  Having to be dropped off nearly an hour early for the meet so the girls could attend the PSU Student Housing  Expo at the HUB, I was pleased to see that Greg Fredericks brought Coach Groves early too!

I had the pleasure to speak with Coach and Greg for an extended time.  It is wonderful to see that Coach is happy in his new residence, relates the food as "good" and only occasionally gets into trouble.  About exactly as any of us would figure.

Greg also delivered the raw materials that will become the ultimate PSU Track Alum Annual Award at our Reunion and Coach Groves Golf Tourney weekend.  Coach Bill Whittaker is commended for donating the item for our cause.  You all will enjoy the item's unveiling at the next Awards Dinner.

I also got to talk to Steve Shisler. whose son Alex Shisler finished 3rd in the 400M Invitational!  Beth Shisler could not be there, as she had traveled "for work".  That same excuse becomes mine next week when I miss the Sykes and Sabock Challenge and Coaches Reception.  I will be at the meeting of the Association of Miserable Curmudgeons while the rest of you enjoy yourselves.

Tim Backenstose made a surprise appearance and got to see a very fine 800M with Brannon Kidder and 3 other top NCAA finalists duke it out on the Ashenfelter Oval.  Brannon topped them all with a 1:47.01 time, near the top of this year's qualifying marks.  We both also witnessed a school record 1-Mile by Tori Gerlach with a 4:37.83, eclipsing Bridget Franek's previous record.

But my favorite part of the day was convincing the energetic dynamo Billy Francis Cvecko to become a contributor to the blog!  With his criss-crossing of the Continent and his millions of friends, he can't help but be a boon to our efforts. He isn't our Undersecretary of Fun for nothing!

I always thought there was a chance that Billy WAS the Lion until I finally saw them both in the same room.

 

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

Nittany Lions Make Excellent Coaches And Parents

It was a bang up several days for PSU Track Alumni Golfers in the Coaching ranks.  And let's not forget the parental ranks either!

First up is great friend, teammate and class-mate Mark Haywood, who coaches the Lions of Camp Hill.  The boys won the Class A District 3 title and the girls were 4th.  Mark also coaches our Grand Exalted IT Czar Jeff and Mary Sanden's daughter Carissa Sanden!

Carissa Sanden thumbs-up for her parents Jeff and Mary Sanden.

Mark Haywood, rear, and his Winning Team.

Lisa and Mark Haywood. Their wedding reception was awesome.

Next up is the Little Lions of State College High, who are coached by 5 of the greatest PSU Track Alumni Golfers of all!  The Lions won District 6 in both the boys and the girls.

Rebecca Donaghue, left  and the victorious women. Where's Artie?

Here's Coach Artie Gilkes with Coach Rebecca Donaghue!

Coach Dave Felice, center, with Coach Steve Shisler and Coach Nick K. to his left.

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.

Still Another First Hand Account Of "The Race"

We have had previous remembrances of The Race before, from Randy Moore and Steve Shisler. Here's another remembrance of that specific race from David Zeiters, who had just finished his Sprint Medley race and was with Coach Groves along the wall.  Dave even managed to take some pics of the aftermath with one of those old-fashioned film cameras the kids today know nothing about!  Thanks for letting me steal all of this to make the blog with it all more complete!

Vance Watson, Steve Shisler and Chris Mills.

I'm actually in this pic in the first row near the orange guy!

Vance Watson and Randy Moore. "Give me that baton!"

"Thirty years ago today, I saw one of the greatest track events in my life when the Penn State men’s 4x 800m relay team won at the 1985 Penn Relays with the best time in the world that year! A smoking 7:11.17!I had just finished my 200m leg in the Sprint Medley relay race, grabbed my sweats, and rushed back out to the track to watch the highly anticipated men’s 4x800m relay race. We all knew we had great 800m runners and it would be a good race. I ended up standing on top of the back of a bench leaning up against the north brick wall next to Coach Groves. I remember Coach with his Spiked Shoe ball cap on had his notebook and stop watch ready to call out the splits. Vance Watson was our first leg and started the race. I remember Coach yelling, “let’s go Vance!” After a great first leg, Vance handed the baton off to Steve Shisler in first place. As Steve rounded the first turn in front of us Coach yelled “beat’m to the curve Steve!” Steve ran a blazing second leg and handed off the baton still in first place to our young freshman stud, Chris Mills. All the while Coach is barking out split times for Judy or Joe to write down. Chris just went out and ran probably his best 800m split of the year. Chris finished a strong leg and handed off to our All-American 800m runner, Randy Moore. Then it happened. It was one of those perfect runs you maybe see a few times in your lifetime. Randy busted out an unbelievable 800! As he fought off the Georgetown runner on the last lap down the straight a way we were screaming our lungs out until he crossed the finish line in first place. I looked over to Coach and he had this elated amazed look on his face and said, “my God he ran a 1:45.”As the four guys started their victory lap, I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures as they jogged past us. I was standing by Coach and remember Vance yelling over to him, “Coach we did it!” I saw Coach have a tear in his eyes and a smile from ear to ear. I have never seen Coach happier. Thirty years ago today."

 
-David Zeiters.

Watches And Wheels! Good Start To Penn Relays Carnival

Elizabeth Chikotas, 5000M Champion. 16:05.46

Darrel Hill, repeat Shot Put Champion, third longest mark ever. 68' 2.5"

Sprint Medley Relay Championship of America, Alex Shisler, Xavier Smith, Sancho Barrett and Brannon Kidder.

2 Generations of Wheel Winners, Stephen Shisler, Alex Shisler and Beth Shisler. (Photo from Larry Mangan and Mark Hawkins.)

 

Michael Gross, Wheel and watch from 1997 Corporate DMR!

Stephen Shisler brings us the video of the Sprint Medley!