Sept. 16, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Nittany Lion cross country squads will take to their home course for the first time this season, competing at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at the Blue-White Golf Courses. The women's race is slated to get underway at 10:00 a.m., with the men's collegiate competition scheduled for a 10:45 a.m., start.
The following is the first of a series of blog posts from senior Caitlin Lane (Greenwich, N.Y.). Lane is a team captain, as well as an NCAA all-region standout in cross country, and an NCAA qualifier in track and field. The senior also holds a pair of school records, including the indoor 1,000-meters (2:45.95), and 4x800-meter relay (8:39.44) outdoors.
Life in the Fast "Lane " with Caitlin and the Nittany Lions ...
We are just two days out from our first home meet of the season! The Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational is a college and high school meet named after legendary cross-country and track coach Harry Groves who coached at Penn State for 38 years. While the "top nine" from both the men and women's squads will be sitting out in preparation for next week's Roy Griak Invitational, it is time for a lot of the younger girls to have the spotlight. This race will be a big contributing factor to see who gets to travel in a few weeks to Notre Dame for the Notre Dame Invitational.
For the men and women sitting out, this will be a weekend where we train through. We will work out on the perfectly manicured Penn State golf course on Friday, (where Spiked Shoe and the Penn State National is held), and then get to the course bright and early on Saturday to cheer on our teammates racing.
The ladies that will be lacing up for this weekend's competition are junior Colleen Shannon, sophomores Marta Klebe, Kalyn Fisher, Markea Dickinson, Lucia Sofo, Gwenn Porter and Dani Kocjancic. The freshmen that will be racing at home for the first time are Kerrin Jennings, Leigha Anderson, Rachael Casciano and Lauren Mills.
This will be a bit of a challenge for our freshman considering it will be their first 6k, on a very challenging course. However, after a great pre-season and a great first race at the Lock Haven Dolan Duels, I think our group of girls will hold their own against the competition and make Penn State proud.