December 09, 2009

Nittany Lion Track and Field To Kick Off Season At Blue-White Meet

Dec. 10, 2009

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.: December 10, 2009 - Coming off a seventh-place finish at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships, the Nittany Lion women's track and field team is once again poised and ready for another record-breaking season that will kick off this weekend at the annual Blue-White Meet at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track. Meanwhile, the Penn State men's squad is also primed for a success 2010, following a 14th-place finish in last year's John McDonnell Program of the Year standings, as well as a program-best bronze-medal effort at the 2009 Big Ten Indoor Championships.

Shavon GReaves

The women's squad will be paced a trio of returning NCAA Indoor All-Americans in seniors Bridget Franek (Hiram, Ohio), and Fawn Dorr (Akron, N.Y.), along with junior Shavon GReaves (Lakewood, N.J.). Greaves dominated among conference competition in 2009, taking Big Ten titles in the 60- and 200-meters, as well as the 4x400-meter relay, and moved on to earn dual All-America honors at NCAA Indoor, finishing 10th in the 200, and running on the third-place 4x400. Dorr, who was also a key cog on the Lions' Big Ten Champion and NCAA bronze-medal 4x400 in 2009, made a splash individual, winning the Big Ten crown at 400-meters. Franek, who set a pair of Penn State records during the 2009 indoor campaign, posted a fourth-place finish in the NCAA 5,000-meters last winter, to go along with bronze-medal finishes in both the 3,000-meters and 5,000 at the Big Ten Championships. Also returning in 2010 is NCAA outdoor qualifier Bianca Fung (North Babylon, N.Y.), who will headline the Nittany Lion contingent in the horizontal jumps, while senior and multiple-time Big Ten scorer Brittany Maun (Greenville, Pa.) is the top returner in the women's high jump.

Owen Dawson

On the men's side, the Lions return junior Ryan Foster (Tasmania, Australia) - the defending Big Ten Champion at 800-meters, and a member of the Lions' ninth-place distance medley relay at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Foster is joined by fellow NCAA provisional qualifiers Samuel Borchers (Yellow Springs, Ohio), Owen Dawson (Coatesville, Pa.), and Lionel Williams (Staten Island, N.Y.) in the middle distances, while 2009 All-Big Ten cross country finisher Vince McNally (Smoketown, Pa.), and NCAA provisional qualifier Kyle Dawson (Coatesville, Pa.) will head up the longer distance races throughout the 2010 campaign. Competing in the jumps will be redshirt-freshman Hanif Johnson (Harrisburg, Pa.) after scoring a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten outdoor triple jump as a rookie last spring. Leading a squad of talented throwers is junior Joe Kovacs (Nazareth, Pa.), who recorded one of the top 15 throws nationally in the shot put during the outdoor season in 2009.

About the Meet:
Meet: Penn State Blue-White Meet
Where: Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track
When: Saturday, December 12, 2009
First Event: Field - 2:00 p.m.; Track - 3:00 p.m.
Scoring: Events will be scored 5-3-2-1 for individual events, and 5-3 for relays. Only two individuals per team will score per event, and one relay.

Teams:

Men's Blue -
Borchers, Samuel
Caldwell, Logan
Cipro, Chris
Dawson, Owen
Eaton, Blake
Eck, Cory
Edling, Cody
Foster, Ryan
Greene, Duri
Groves, Matt
Hartzler, Bryson
Havko, Sam
Johnson, Hanif
Lawrence, Bradford
Matula, Jeremy
McCready, Evan
McNally, Vince
Millar, Brett
Nadolsky, Aaron
Nowicki, Will
Pelletier, Jason
Skinner, Eli
Taylor, Justin
Thielemann, Adam
Uzoh, Anya
Zarzeczny, Lucas