All Kinds of Updates!

Here's Aaron Nodolsky in the 2012 NCAA 4 x 400 Relay Finals in Des Moines, Iowa.  The team ran a second straight 3:01 to nab 4th place!  What a great finish for PSU at the Championships.  The score helped PSU finish 21st as a team, with momentum for much more next year.

Aaron Nodolsky, Brandon Bennett-Green, Casimir Loxsom and Brady Gehret - First Team all-Americans!

Also adding points to the total on the final day of the competition was Joe Kovacs in 4th place in the Shot Put. 

Joe Kovacs - First Team All-American!

Honorary PSU Track Alumni Golfer Rebecca Donaghue set a PR and qualified for the Olympic Trials with her  32:36.05 effort in the 10,000 M. Good luck Rebecca.  (Artie, I guess "putting on the foil" worked!)

PSU's Kara Millhouse set a 40 second PR in the same race with a 32:57.33.  I guess she's an Alumni Golfer now too!

Penn State Recruit Zavon Watkins placed second in the New York High School 1600 with a 4:07.24.  He'll be happy to learn how Happy Valley makes everybody even faster!  That's Zavon running for Liverpool High School.

Preparations are underway for another Penn State Track Alumni Golf Outreach in Suburban Philadelphia some time in August.  This of course involves Kung Pao Chicken, the world's greatest food.  Get in touch with me if you are interested or stay tuned to the blog for more details.

And I'm trying to make the transition to Twitter to reach more of the younger set.  Sign up as a follower of me.  Anyone who understands the whole Twitter Scene can drop me a line with some tips, suggestions or just to generally make fun of me.

And here's Mike Pfaff being interviewed about his role in the feature film Bloody Wedding.  He gives a nice shout out to Penn State Track along the way.

Third First-Team All-American of the NCAA Championship Weekend

That's Brady Gehret on the Awards Stand for the 2012 NCAA 400 M Finals at Des Moines, Iowa.  He placed 6th in 45.44!  He'll be back in action today in the 4 X 400 M Relay.

The other All-Americans:

• Laura Loht - First Team - Javelin
• Lauren Kenney - First Team - Javelin
• Casimir Loxsom - Second Team - 800 M
• Melissa Kurzdorfer - SecondTeam - Hammer
• Rebekka Simko - Second Team - 800 M
• Women's 4 x 400 M Relay - Second Team - (Doris Anyanwu, Dynasty McGee, Ijeoma Iheoma, Kirsten Niewendam)
  

School Record at NCAA Championships

They did it during the Indoor Season, so why not during the Outdoor Season?  Maybe even a couple of times.  Why not?

The quartet of Aaron Nodolsky (46.6), Brandon Bennett-Green (44.8), Casimir Loxsom (45.6) and Brady Gehret (44.22), qualified first for the finals of the 4 x 400 M Relay to be held on Saturday.  This gives them the Outdoor School Record by more than 2 seconds.   3:01.52

Brady Gehret will lace up the spikes on Friday evening in the Open 400M also.

As an editorial note, I have to say that the 400M has always been the event I never wanted to run.  It always seemed to me that it was the event that created the most lactic acid and brought someone closest to collapse at the end.  In high school I was often threatened with being placed as anchor on the 4 x 440 Yard Relay, which kept me the most behaved member of the team.

Having run thousands of "quarters" in training over the years, I have a healthy respect for anyone willing and able to run that distance in under 50 seconds.  although 54 was probably my very limited PR, I was able to run a 58 at the end of a 2-Mile, for whatever that is worth.

My hats are off to these guys, and I wish them luck in the finals.  May the stick fall right into your hands and may the track be scorched!

Eugene Orowitz Could Throw the Javelin Also

It was a good day in Des Moines for Penn State Javelin throwers yesterday at the NCAA Championships.  Freshman Lauren Kenney placed fourth in the event with a throw of 167' 10".  And Sophomore Laura Loht topped that with her third place throw of 169' 4".  PSU is Javelin U.

In high school back in the 50's, Eugene Orowitz didn't really enjoy the academic side of things despite having an IQ higher than almost all of us in The Group.  But he did discover a knack for throwing the Javelin and won the New Jersey High School State Meet with a National Record 193' 4" in 1954.  That landed him a scholarship to USC despite coming in next to last in his high school class at Collingswood High School in Oaklyn NJ. (Also the Alma Mater of "The Great Bile")

When he blew his shoulder out after the first track meet of his Freshman campaign, academics couldn't keep him in school, so he drifted into Hollywood and became Michael Landon.*

*Garth Brooks was also a champion Javelin Thrower.  And don't forget how Coach Groves tried to recruit Al Cantello, the world record holder in the Javelin.  Coach Cantello has been coaching the distance runners at the Naval Academy since 1963, I think.

Nittany Lions Start NCAA Championships Today

There will be 6 Nittany Lions competing today at the NCAA Championships in Des Moines.

1. Will Barr - Discus
2. Lauren Kenney - Javelin
3. Laura Loht - Javelin
4. Casimir Loxsom - 800 M
5. Brady Gehret - 400 M
6. Rebekka Simko - 800 M

PSU is 800 U  and  PSU is Javelin U!

"The Streak" in Jeopardy?

It's not quite as dramatic as that, but I somehow "pulled" my hamstring while sleeping, I think.  It's been 3 days now and I've had to hobble several miles daily and just one yesterday because of it.  I need 10 more days to complete 5 years without missing a day.

Advice, encouragement and prayers would be appreciated.  It's stupid, I know, but it's all I got!

Matt Woodrum and Meghan Vogel: Honorary PSU Track Alumni Golfers

First, Matt Woodrum, a better 400 M runner than I.



And last, (if only in this race!), Ohio 1600 M State Champion Meghan Vogel.

Ohio Recruit Wins 3 Golds at State Meet: PSU is 800 U

Penn State's Middle Distance and Distance corps will be augmented next year by Brannon Kidder from Lancaster, Ohio.  This keeps the tradition alive of former Nittany Lions Clark Haley and John Zishka, both from the same High School.

(Zavon Watkins, another Lion miler recruit from New York State will be competing this weekend in their state championships.)

Brannon Kidder started off his triple gold performance on Friday night by helping his 4 x 800 team to a win with a 1:50.xx split.  Some argue it was a 1:49.xx.  He then won the 1600 M and the 800 M individually on Saturday.  His 1:51.77 and 4:09.98 bode well for his coming PSU career.

Life Back On Track

Luke Watson's and Ryan Foster's idea of a  10 Man/1,000 Mile Relay is coming in August.  The event will benefit the Life Back on Track Scholarship which will be given to a high school athlete who has suffered an injury or illness, allowing them to pursue their academic goals in college.  All in the name of Kevin Dare, who suffered his fatal injury 10 years ago already.

The relay will begin at the pole vault pit at the Minnesota Indoor Track and wind its way back to Kevin's home and Penn State's Campus.  The runners hope to complete the event in less than 99 hours and 3 minutes, thus achieving the world record.

I have sent a personal and humble donation to the Scholarship Drive in the name of our entire group and I urge each of you to check it out and hopefully support them also.  I offered some advice also, but my usual "Start slow and taper off"  marathon advice won't get the job done!  They need to average less than 6 minutes/mile for the record.  I just wish it was 1977 again, as I would have helped them out back then.

You'll Poke Your Eye Out, Kid!

When I somehow linked the Steeplechase to Javelin Throwing in a previous post, I had no idea there was anyone practicing both of the disciplines.  Leave it to Kelly O'Brien to prove me wrong.  He received his javelin in the mail recently, and plans to try out the event in an upcoming Senior Meet.  He'll also return to the event that made him famous at PSU, the Steeplechase, after 30 years of avoiding the barriers and water-jump.

I have put a poll up on the left side-bar to place your bet on what will happen when combining these two events. (It's all in good fun.)

Ten Questions: Ryan Foster

I took Ryan Foster away from his preparations for the 1,000 Mile Relay to benefit the Kevin Dare Foundation long enough for him to answer our Famous Ten Questions. Please give your consideration to donating to their cause.  It was great having Ryan golf with us this year, adding a great international flair to the event.

1. How was coming to America different than you first imagined?

1) A really big thing I noticed was the formality when being served by someone. Going through customs in America there is a lot of "Hello sir, can I please see your passport sir?", in Australia, you get to customs and receive a "G'day mate, got ya passport?". I've certainly picked up a habit of using sir and ma'am on a daily basis.

2. What do you miss the most when you are here?
2) Being in central PA, I miss the beach the most. I never lived more than 5 miles from the beach before I moved to the US.

3. How much more uptight are Americans as compared to Tasmanians?
3) I think that Americans are unnecessarily uptight about a number of things, particularly gas prices. 

$4 a gallon hasn't been seen in Australia since the 90s so I still think it is absurdly cheap.

4. How does distance training differ compared with Australia?
4) Training is very similar. At Penn State, I certainly do more volume and less workouts. In Aus, I would typically do 3-4 workouts a week. I was also hurt a lot more back then...

5. How do the climate patterns in State College compare to those in Hobart?
5) Hobart is a mild-temperate climate so reasonably consistent year round. The record low is 27 F and high is 105 F, winter averages low 50s F, and summer right about 70 F.

6. Budweiser or Fosters?
6) I have to admit, I have never had a Fosters... Budweiser is okay, but the king of this category of beer is Miller Lite. Hands down.

7. Who came up with the 1,000 Mile Relay idea?
7) He's going to be a professor one day, so no surprise Luke Watson came up with this one. We were on a run one day with the team and somehow got talking about doing a crazy run. Luke happened to mention it was almost exactly 1,000 miles from Minneapolis to State College. I put two-and-two together pretty quick, and within a week, Ed Dare had agreed to throw his hat into the ring.

8. You do know that it will be really, really difficult, don't you?
People keep saying that it is going to be hard, but I think we have a very, very good strategy. I interviewed Vince yesterday about question marks that had been raised about his fitness by a few unnamed sources, and he said, "at the end of the day it's not going to be about how fit I am, it's going to be about determination." Vince is crazy though. It's definitely going to be about fitness, and I think we are all in really good shape (except Vince apparently).

9. Do the efforts of our rag-tag Alumni Group mean anything to the current team members?
9) Oh man, I love the Alumni Group. I read this blog everyday and try to get involved as much as possible. It's been really great to see the alumni come out of the woodwork the last few years and get more involved with Penn State track. There have been guys who gave me support and advice through my college career, and continue to regularly now as a post-collegiate.

 

 10. Who is the most famous Physicist in Australia?

 10) I can't think of anyone off the top of my head. I can't imagine we have many. In my personal experience, most of our best and brightest do economics.

Foursome of Favorites Fail to Finish

10)  John Gondak, Steve Shisler, Paul Mundy, Clark Haley (dnf)

This exact team ran away with the title last year and was the British Gambler's odds-on favorite to run away with it again.  But all the bets were for naught, as the Dream Team failed to finish the 18-holes in the regulation time period.

Paul "Crazy Pants" Mundy boomed drive after drive with "The Beast" to no avail. Let's be thankful he drives his Harley straighter than his golf drives!

Steve Shisler was disappointed in not getting his name on The Cup a second time. (And I failed to give him the photos from the 1985 Penn Relays 4 x 800 Championship of America for the second straight year!) 

Coach John Gondak became the Spokesman for the group when Clark became lost on the golf course somewhere on the front nine with just several holes remaining.  He held up well under the pressure of the podium at the Awards Dinner.  Which I am thankful for.

Clark Haley finally found a way to not win his own Golf Tournament.  And I'm thankful that Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golfers always are willing to help anyone in need.  Just like the group Clark started in 2002!