Sept. 6, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Seniors Caitlin Lane (Greenwich, N.Y.) and Kyle Dawson (Coatesville, Pa.) have been named Big Ten Runners of the Week following winning efforts at the Dolan Duals, last Friday evening at West Branch Cross Country Course, at Lock Haven University. Both seniors paced their respective Nittany Lion squads to 15-50 "perfect" score victories over Lock Haven, each setting course records in the process.
Lane posted her fourth-straight victory at the Lock Haven competition, breaking the tape in 13:26 for the 4,000-meter competition, to better her own course record - 13:54 from 2009. In fact, the conference honor is also the fourth-career citation for the senior, who has garnered the post-Labor Day recognition in each of the last four years.
The senior, who was an NCAA All-Region honoree in 2010, ran away from the competition, besting the rest of the field by 35 seconds. Lane's performance highlighted an outstanding effort by the Nittany Lion top five, including sophomore Emily Giannotti (Coudersport, Pa.) in second), juniors Natalie Bower (Pleasant Unity, Pa.) and Brooklyne Ridder (Cincinnati, Ohio) in third and fourth, respectively, and freshman Abbie Benson (Iroquis, N.Y.) in fifth.
Lane will share this week's honor with Northwestern's Audrey Huth.
Dawson was just as impressive up front, touring the 6,000-meter course in 17:36 - to smash the previous course record by nearly 30 seconds. The senior left little room for doubt in the win, finishing over 20 seconds ahead of the field. The conference honor is the first of Dawson's career.
The senior, who is a two-time all-conference finisher, as well as the 2008 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, paced a stellar showing by the Nittany Lions, as teammates redshirt-freshman Matt Fischer (Unionville, Pa.), seniors Chris Cipro (Harmony, Pa.) and Vince McNally, and sophomore Nick Scarpello (Jamison, Pa.) would cover the second through fifth-place finishing positions to complete the perfect score sweep.
The Nittany Lions will be back in action at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational, set for Saturday, September 17, at the Blue-White Golf Courses.