Jan. 16, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - By Astrid Diaz, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In their season opener last weekend the Nittany Lions a sent huge message to fans and rivals, this season they're coming, they're looking, and they're conquering.
Penn State spent the week fine tuning and dusting off in preparation for the Nittany Lion Challenge, which will look to bring six schools to Happy Valley including powerhouses Georgetown and the University of Miami on Saturday.
"We have another group of six teams coming in this weekend that are excited to be here and we're excited to have," said head coach John Gondak. "Last weekend showed a lot of our student-athletes are ready to accomplish some big things so we're going be to be going after some good marks this weekend."
"It's Our House"
Home facility advantage will be one of the best parts of this weekend's challenge (and of the indoor season).
There's something about being in a routine and a familiar environment that brings out the best in an athlete and the Nittany Lions aren't taking that for granted as their feeding off of the energy one event and one fan at a time.
"It's a cliché that `it's our house' but that's how they look at this and they don't want people to come in here and beat them. They feed off of it a lot," said assistant coach Randy Bungard. "The stands are packed so there's a lot of energy and the video board going. Plus, when you travel you might take 30 guys and 30 girls but when you're here, even people that aren't traveling are here to cheer. So when you're here you have a huge fan [advantage]."
The sprints group is especially excited to see some tough sprints competition as some of their core runners are healthy and ready to race.
"The sprint group is excited about [it]. Miami always brings good sprinters - they're chomping at the bit especially Kiah [Seymour], Quenee [Dale] because they were held out. They're ready to get racing," said Bungard. "The sprints group was a very big part of our Big Ten and National Championship success last year and they just need to keep it going."
Consistency is Key
Several Nittany Lions had huge showings at the Penn State Relays and consistency will be key as they look into Saturday's challenge.
The throws group has hungry competitors including Darrell Hill and Rachel Fatherly who will be key leaders as they move forward.
"We have some good energy in the throws group right now. We had some ups and downs but Rachel [Fatherly] who sits eighth in the country and Darrell [Hill] who's first in the nation will definitely propel [the team's] confidence levels. As a group hopefully everyone can feed off of that," said assistant coach Patrick Ebel.
The team's pole-vaulters and jumpers are doing big things as well and will look to close some gaps within their group in order to be one of the most prominent powerhouse teams.
"What we got out of [last] meet is that we can be better. We have some nagging little injuries. We're looking to do something big this weekend and show what we have here. I think we have a lot of talent," said assistant coach Kevin Kelly. "We're fine tuning stuff this week. We're trying to have high quality practices."
We Are...Pitbulls
The second competition will, hopefully, be an even better one for the Nittany Lions as the team gets electrified to win.
There's no doubt that the universities coming in this weekend will experience a huge competitive atmosphere paired with healthy and determined athletes.
Of their eventful week of preparations, however, Penn State wants the competition to know only one thing.
"Whoever comes in here, we're going to go after them," said Bungard. "We are pitbulls. We're going to go after you and if we're not wining, we're going to push you to a PR (personal record) and we're going to make you run hard."
The Nittany Lion Challenge kicks off Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at the Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.