Brackets Going To The Dogs

The March Madness is ongoing.  Following the first round of action, several Track Alumni Golfers are near the top of the list.

• Mark Haywood       28/32
• Zeb Stewart             28/32
• Mark Hawkins        27/32
• Tyler McCandless   27/32

And there are several other dogs joining the first ever Jack Russell Terrier Challange.  Remember, these guys filled out their brackets without thumbs!  Cut them a break!

• Thomas Bernard Roth    (St. Bernard)   26/32
• Kierrun O'Brien    (mixed?)                     25/32
• Spott Moskowitz  (Jack Russell)             23/32
• Bo Quinn   (Jack Russell)                        21/32

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.

More Photos Saved From The Dustbin Of The Early 80's

Chris Herr at Villanova.

Todd Shenk Mike Valenti, with spectators John and Jim Reyner, above .Unknown Jumper, below!

Todd Leggett rightly points out that the thrower is Mike Valenti, not Todd Shenk.  Greg even told me that in his email.  I have no excuse for getting it wrong other than I'm an idiot.

Zeb Stewart, below. Unkown runners, above.

Fact checkers Alert.  You know what to do!  (A little help with identification...)  All photos by Greg Reyner.

Nearly an Elite 8!

Matt Fischer (just left of center) toes the line.  Photo by Nick Scarpello.

I notice things.  Sometimes I pick up on a meme before others.  Sometimes, it's even significant when I do.  I picked up on this meme several years ago and have trumpeted it before.

Penn State Track and Field Athletes continue to improve during their careers as well as any athletes in any College in the Nation.

Sometimes there are athletes like me who start out with humble talent, and sometimes there are athletes with unbelievable talent.  But invariably,  PSU Track athletes attain their ultimate potential under the current coaching staff as well as anywhere in the US.  Hats off to everyone.

Yesterday, the distance corps demonstrated this on a grand scale at the Stanford Invitational.  All seven (one short of eight, get it?) attained a PR on their first performance of the outdoor season. My congrats to everyone.

1. Matt Fischer   14:01.23  5000 M
2. Tyler Corkedale  14:20.06  5000 M
3. Nick Scarpello  14:23.08  5000 M
4. Natalie Bower  16:12.88  5000 M
5. Tori Gerlach  16:28.51  5000 M
6. Emily Giannotti  34:54.26  10000 M
7. Abbie Benson  10:33.30  3000 M SC

And the real Elite 8 has decimated Montgomery Baskwill's early round prognostication performance.  He's now just an also-ran.  I notice only a couple of Track Alumni Golfers in the top echelon with Zeb Stewart garnering a current 6th place in Ken Cooper's annual pool. Group friend Ron "Bile" Ferguson also seems to be in a drivers seat of sorts, still having his winner in the final eight.

1	12	Rupe, Mark	65
2	(1)	Riter, Christie	64
3	0	Sailer, Aaron	63
4	26	McCarthy, Dennis	63
5	4	Ferguson, Ron	62
6	44	Stewart, Zeb	62
7	3	Angelo, Peter	62
8	4	Radzwich, Claudia	61
9	5	Cardenas, Milton	61
10	5	Dubya, G	61
11	5	Oppenheimer, Hank	61
12	6	Tate, Andy	61
13	49	Cooper, Kevin (2)	60
14	(12)	Cooper, Kyle	60
15	10	Golic, Mike	60
16	54	Wintersteen, Kyle	59
17	10	Sailer, Jackson	59
18	59	Morse, Willie	59
19	(15)	Cooper, Kyle 2	59
20	16	Obama, Barack	59
21	16	Cooper, Kathleen	58
22	20	Smith, Holden	58
23	(17)	Roth, Andy	58
24	62	Jones, Darryl	58

Degrees of Separation

Steve Walsh, PSU '01, was just hired as the (Men's and Women's) Track and Field (and Cross-Country) Coach at William and Mary.  Steve is not only a great ex-PSU runner, but one heck of a good golfer also.  The chains that links William and Mary, PSU and our humble group are quite strong.  Coach Groves coached at W and M from 1958 1956 (via the Wand M site!) to 1968, before beginning his 38 year tenure at PSU.  Brian Mount ran with Gary Black, Steve Black and others at State College High and then at W and M.  While there, he ran with Zeb Stewart while Zeb was there at Grad School, (before being banned from Colonial Williamsburg for Life!).  Following graduation, Brian meandered to suburban Philly where he joined a running club run by our own Bob Gabel (past winner of the Golden Putter!).

I had the pleasure of golfing with Steve at last year's tourney.  I hope he can find time to golf with us again.  That's him all the way on the right, avoiding Ted Lyon and Coach at all costs!  A special tip of the cap to Jeff Sanden for the info.  That's him next to Ted and Coach!

"Quote of the week"

"I just walk down the hallway and wave at everyone - like I'm their Mayor"

Zeb Stewart - Senior year in South Halls

Scandinavians Succumb:

A fresh web site hit from Malmo, Sweden (I'm not making this up!) , according to the official PSU Track Alumni physicist Stephen Hawking. Either that or it heralds a coming ice age, bucking the popular global warming predictions. I figure an ice age is more likely, but I hold out hope our little collection of reprobates will be enhanced by an addition of such monumental importance. Web site hits were also obtained from Singapore, Russia and Portugal, indicating world-wide acceptance of our mission statement (although we don't have one yet).

The Alumni Outreach Program rolled on with a return visit to Zeb Stewart's suburban Philadelphia home. We are happy to report he is now in the "most probably" category. His generous donation to our General Fund and Future Scholarship Fund was rewarded with decals and magnets which now grace his refrigerator. That places our official count at "somewhere north of 25 golfers". Those of you on the fence are forewarned.

PSU Track Alumni Outreach Program

In an effort to entice additional participation next year, we have begun an outreach program to visit recent non-participants at their home. The first stop was suburban Philadelphia where we visited Zeb Stewart and begged him to come next year. Sign up early and avoid an embarrassing visit from one of our facilitators! Zeb was gracious as always but made no promises. Others may help by applying pressure via email. New Jersey, New York City or North Carolina may be next on the list, so beware.

Additional pictures from the disposable cameras have been added to the slide show on the 2008 tourney. Clark Haley, Harry Smith and Paul Mundy held the cameras most of the time, but by appearances, squirrels took most of the pictures. A big hat-tip goes to Rob "Brotherhood" Whiteside, who has generously added new portraits to the slide show on Coach's retirement.