UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – As the fall season quickly approaches, the Penn State men's and women's cross country teams are training hard for another championship season.
The teams will be travelling for their season opener, the Dolan Duals meet, this upcoming weekend at Lock Haven University on August 31st. Head Coach John Gondak and captain Elizabeth Chikotas proudly spoke at Fall Sports Media Day on Tuesday to inform Penn State fans about their hard work, dedication, and commitment to succeed this upcoming season.
Gondak is excited about his fifth year with the Nittany Lions, and especially his new younger athletes.
"In cross country, for men, the race distance almost doubles from high school and it is going to be a bit of a growing process for them to learn how to handle the longer race distances, so we are a bit of an unknown commodity on the men's side," Gondak said.
The women's side team is led by Chikotas, who redshirted last fall. She is now back to encourage the underclassmen to perform their best, and also act as a role model for the entire team.
"We are trying to create a good culture of team comradery and just being really honest with the girls and creating an environment where they can ask us if they have any questions or concerns. We also want to reassure them to trust the process because it's a big change from high school training to college training," Chikotas said.
The women's team has three all-region athletes returning from last year, so Gondak's main focus for the next few weeks will be finding a fifth runner to fill out the squad.
"We return three all-region athletes from last year and so right there that is a really solid top four including Chikotas as we head into the season," Gondak said. "Between some of our returning athletes and some of the newcomers that we have we will be looking for a fifth runner over the next few weeks."
This season, Gondak is especially looking forward to the National Open Meet which will be hosted by Penn State on October 12th. The meet will have approximately 28 other teams from around the country come and run the new Penn State course that was redesigned this year. He is also pleased that Penn State will be hosting the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
"It is always a nice advantage to have when we are trying to qualify for nationals and we get a chance to do that on our home course," said Grondak.
While the team is excited for late in the season, the preseason work is still finishing.
Over the summer, the new freshmen were able to get a feel for the Penn State running program. New recruits were given some suggested workouts to help adapt to college training. The men's team is looking forward to seeing what freshmen step up to complete their top five.
"Every distance runner knows that if they want to have success, they have to train in the summer," said Grondak.
Chikotas, coming off a missed year, has set personal goals for herself this season and focused all summer on training after taking a year off. She wants to prove to herself that she can come back and perform even stronger than before.
"Personally, I want to get back to the National Championships and do the best that I can there as well as doing well at the Big Tens," she said.
The men's and women's teams are heading into this season knowing that they have to train hard, and have their sights set on a winning season.
