"Scrappy" Runs in the Family

The Nittany Lions have a legacy at shortstop for the Baseball team.  Taylor Skerpon is the son of Don Skerpon, PSU pole vaulter from the late 70's and early 80's.  Taylor patterns his game after Dustin Pedroia, thus making him an old-fashioned, scrappy, do-it-right kind of player.  I would have used Pete Rose for that if I could actually play the game well enough to graduate from Little League. But my baseball game is equal to my golf game, so that was out the window.  And Pete had issues none of us knew about at the time.


Those who know Don, know the scrappy nature of his athletic prowess also. I often talk about my inability to even carry his 16 ft. pole vault pole down the runway. But  not many know that he was called on to be the fourth man on the Shuttle Hurdle Relay at the Penn Relays.  Having Paul Lankford depending on you as a teammate and competing against Renaldo Nehemiah may seem a tough thing to do, but Don did it with enough skill to even get Coach Groves to smile.

We Need Your Help!

We need a big showing at our upcoming Track Alumni Reunion in order to out-do the Lacrosse team's participation rate!

PSU Lacrosse Alumni, 100th Anniversary.

Get your entry in for the Reunion and Golf Tournament Now! And bring a friend!

And Sam Masters needs a little help from some speedy alums also:

Hello, Alumni,

If you are between the ages 18 and 40, and can run 6:00/mile for 15 minutes, a colleague of mine is offering $30 for 90 minutes of your time.

He is a fellow PhD student in the lab that I work in (biomechanics) and is doing a study on ankle moment arms and economy. His name is Herman van Werkhoven. He needs 13 more participants. Not only do you get $30, but you are contributing to the underlying science of distance running.

E-mail Herman van Werkhoven (hxv114@psu.edu) or myself (sem361@psu.edu) if you are interested. Thank you!

-Sam

It's a shame I'm over 40 y.o. or I'd love to put in a 6:00 mile for him!  hee hee hee

Lions and Tigers and One Bear

The Women Lions won the Crimson Tide Invitational in Tuscaloosa and the Men placed third. The Missouri Tigers were there too. Our man in the field Larry Mangan found some time before the Javelin competition to bring us a delightful photo of Paul "Bear" Bryant's bust with a little added PSU Track Alumni Wrist Band!  Yeah, you heard that right, Larry Mangan watched the javelin competition where his daughter Olivia Mangan threw a PR.

Paul "Bear" Bryant gets a dose of PSU Track Alumni goodness.

I'm more interested in finding out how the barbeque was in a place I've never been!



In other news, Tyler McCandless traveled to the nation's capital for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, where he was the first American in a PR 49:01.

Tyler McCandless, 8th Place Cherry Blossom 10 Miles 49:01

Addendum:  From Tyler himself, I learned of several other Lion Alums taking over Washington DC!

Patrick Murphy , and Scott Munro ran 54:20 and 54:26 respectively. Chris Pruitt in 53:32!  Stephanie- Pezz Pezzullo was 9th American in the US Championships too!!
 

PSU is 800 U : All Levels Edition

PSU athletes had 5 of the top 6 places at the Crimson Tide Invitational  in the 800 M yesterday with Brannon Kidder and several others setting PRs in their first effort of the season.

1.  Brannon Kidder   1:47.71

2.  Robbie Creese      1:48.98

4.  Ricky West           1:49.46

5.  Ryan Brennan       1:49.49

6.  Za'Von Watkins    1:49.50

And in addition to winning the National Championships in the 4 x 800 M, at the Club Championships the Nittany Lions also had 3 of the top 8 in the Open 800 M.  The Mens Team won the National Championship and the Women took Second.  Check it all out here.  

1.  Joey Walls             1:56.54

2.  RC McLaughlin    1:57.96

8.  Matt Doutt             2:00.77

"PSU is 800 U" Club Edition!

The Penn State Club XC and Track Team is competing at the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association National Championships in Bloomington, Indiana.  The 4 x 800 team has won the National Championship!  

Finals                                                                 
  1 Penn State Univ T&F Club  'A'                       7:59.94        
     1) Doutt, Matt                     2) Derringer, Garrett          
     3) Jordan, Douglas                 4) Mclaughlin, RC              
  2 Princeton Univ. Running Club  'A'                   8:02.92        
     1) Ebanks, Daniel                  2) Karnes, Ryan                
     3) Bolgert, Peter                  4) Barnett, Andrew             
  3 Illinois Track Club  'A'                            8:05.79        
     1) Boehmke, Zach                   2) Kelch, Ryan                 
     3) Jorgensen, Kevin                4) Jorgensen, Ryan             
  4 Michigan Univ Running Club  'A'                     8:07.99        
     1) Cullen, Garrett                 2) Herkenham, Buddy            
     3) Rose, Robert                    4) Neumann, Matt               
  5 Indiana University Run Club  'A'                    8:09.93        
     1) Spanbauer, Dustin               2) Nussa, Michael              
     3) Phistry, Dan                    4) Jeftich, Nikolas            
  6 Delaware Track Club  'A'                            8:19.53        
     1) Grieco, Joe                     2) Gillispie, Gregory          
     3) Charytonowicz, Dan              4) Wade, Andrew                
  7 Univ. Wisconsin Track Club  'A'                     8:20.42        
     1) Helton, Blake                   2) Choe, Joshua                
     3) Plachinski, Zach                4) Parrott, Keegan        

Coach Groves Honored at William and Mary

The R. Stands for Rrrrrrr...

It is the 50th Anniversary of the start of the Colonial Relays.  These were started by Coach Groves in his first year as Coach at the institution.  Yesterday he was honored with a reception on the balcony overlooking the track and with the naming of the 1500 M Starting Line in his name.

The R stands for "Rrrrrrrrr", Photo by Brian Mount

Coach Harry R. Groves, Photo by Brian Mount

The Patron Saint of Streaks is Also Obsessive-Compulsive

Ron Hill, 1970.

And one of my biggest heroes.

Ron Hill has a running streak unparallelled by anyone.  He invented the whole thing.  So it's no wonder he also has kept track of all of it, probably in more detail than this even.

Here's a list of all his marathons with statistics included!

Ron Hill’s Marathon Record

20  1st places

12  2nd places

8    3rd places

51   top 4 finishes in 115 marathons

112  finishes under 2.50

28   finishes under 2.20

8    times in London

4    times in NYC

4    times in Boston

24   years spanning his first win in Liverpool in1961 and his last win in

       Ipswich in 1985.

I got to talk to him a bit after one of the Maryland Marathons.  He just finished his 4th beer prior to my finish (2:42) which isn't bad as he was still upright.  He ran 2:22 and finished 2nd to Bill Rodgers. He said he liked the Baltimore race because it was a tough course with a big hill at the 20 mile mark.  A challenge for everyone.  I'll bet there aren't many top runners choosing their marathons this way today.  But it could be he kept coming back for the free beer, I suppose.

My Daily Treadmill Runs Are Never Exciting

Janet Norem's morning run Photo by Andrea Ruvalcaba

My daily runs are mostly on my treadmill.  I do realize how lame that is.  I never counted treadmill miles until 1993.  Now, they make up almost all of my yearly totals.  To say that can be sometimes boring is understating it a bit.  Reruns of Big Bang Theory or another Phillies loss isn't a good way to bring excitement into your life.

The opposite on the running spectrum would be the miles Janet Norem puts in daily.  She's currently in Malawi.  So her daily run is in Africa, which is exciting enough.  But who was more surprised during her last run when she was approached by a contingent of cyclists, a lone white ex-PSU runner or the contingent of cross-continent cyclists?

Check out Janet's blog or the web site of the cross-continent cyclists for more.

PSU is 8000 U ???

Here's a great Alumni Singlet sighting from the Shamrock 8K (not bad for a half-miler!) with Mike Cook!

How Much Should College Athletes Be Paid? A Physicist's Answer?

My personal opinion is nothing at all.  This dilemma pops up in ever increasing intensity more and more frequently now, so it is inevitable.  Fighting it is like putting your finger in the dike, or as Coach Groves himself once told me "P*ssing in the ocean thinking it will change the pH."

So I thought about it a bit and came up with a formula of sorts to quantify it as a Physicist like Richard Feynman would do.*  I'm hoping for input (via comments) from my dozens of readers to refine and augment it appropriately.

$ = HWU * (SSPF*UCA) - [(CP + MD) + TCDS  + IBC]

$ - Pay for Student Athlete
HWU - Hard Work Unit (amount of work put into sport by the student-athlete for the entire year)
SSPF - Sport Specific Pay Factor (what each sport is worth)
UCA - University Cost Adjustment (adjustment factor for each school's overall costs per student)
CP - Cost for any prosecutions of student-athlete
MD - Cost of monetary damages incurred by student-athlete
TCDS - The cost of college for the student otherwise displaced by the student-athlete who is now attending Junior College instead
IBC -  Income from illegal boosters including, but not limited to, cars, alcohol, firearms and Party Funds

* I'm no Physicist.  In fact I got a "B" in Physics at PSU, although I got an "A" in the lab.

I Actually Did a Workout on Saturday

I didn't post this earlier because those that know me would suspect it was an April Fools prank if I posted it yesterday.  I pretty much stay clear of the internetty thingie on that day as people do horrible things and act like they're special and cutting-edge by putting up falsehoods everywhere.  It's part of my rebellion to authority or my general curmudgeon-ness! 

I did a 4x500M workout on Saturday.  I won't put any of the times or recovery on here, as that would lead many of you to un-friend me immediately.  Let's just say that I did in fact run a bit better than half as fast as I did at my "peak" in the late 70's and early 80's.  My heart rate actually responded like it should have and the sequelae are all still the same.  Sore throat, lethargy, muscle "pulls" and general crabbiness.

It's not a comeback by any means but I felt good and wanted to see if I could do it.  Maybe it will start a trend.  It certainly makes me more amazed at the exploits of Beth Shisler, Mark Hawkins and Nick Kello. 

There will be professional rabbits at the Alumni "Run" this year to pace people toward a age-group PR in the mile.  Last year's event was a big hit and the campus loop with the team on their warm-up works out splendidly.  Think about joining us this year! You can always hang back and eat donuts instead of running.

Penn State Goodness at Carifta!

Look who the Penn State Coaching Staff ran into at the Carifta Meet!



Mike Sands!