UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State cross country team has an opportunity to tear it up this weekend on its home course for the National Open, and the student-athletes and coaches are ready to make the most of being in Happy Valley.
The team has been making great progress for the past few weeks and is hoping to take advantage of a home course meet heading into the later stages of the year. Throughout the season the student-athletes have been keeping up their mileage and aggressive training schedule to stay competitive, and hoping it will pay off this weekend. Junior Kathryn Munks feels that with the girl's team's positive attitude and confidence from training, they are ready to compete on Friday.
"It's all about getting in consistent miles every day and hitting the hard workouts. We had a hard one on the golf course which was great because it simulates the race on Friday. Also, taking care of the little things because everything is important," Munks said.
The season is quickly coming to an end and this meet will help prepare all of the athletes for upcoming meets such as the Big Ten Championship and the NCAA Regional Championship, which will also be held in State College. The athletes are ready for the competition and prepared to succeed.
"The Big Ten is a great conference and you have a lot of great nationally ranked teams. I think going up against nationally ranked teams now gets you ready for upcoming meets. The competition is there, the aggressiveness is also these, so running on our home course against hard teams definitely helps," Munks added.
Having a meet at home gives the student-athletes a tremendous advantage because they are familiar with the course. They know the best and most direct path, the places where they can speed up and the time to pick it up for the end of the race. These small details can help raise confidence and minimize nerves before the meet.
There are advantages for Penn State both on and off the course.
"For me, I love sleeping in my own bed the night before. I think that's awesome," Munks said. "We also know our course. We know how to run our course, we practice and train on our course all the time. I think a lot of us run really well on our home course."
Sophomore Alex Tomasko is also looking forward to the home meet, and echoed Munks on the advantages of racing in a familiar spot.
"There are certain spots where we can run, that our competition may not think we can run on. It is a new course in which you can pass a lot of people. It goes back to the fact that we just know the course better then these other teams. Its already a natural advantage," Tomasko said.
The men's team believes that it has put together a winning strategy to help finish the race with some exceptional and also reachable times. They have been working on running as a pack to help keep every man together so that they can finish around the same time.
"We are trying to run as a group and just carry ourselves as a group throughout the entire race. It's just going to come down to competing and grinding out a race and beating these fast individuals," Tomasko said.
Coach John Gondak has been trying to sharpen his athletes by working on mileage and strength to help improve their times.
"We have been working on strength through the August and September time period. With our last regular season race this weekend and the Big Ten championship postseason, we are doing some high-quality workouts with some longer rest and preparing to do our best at the championship meets," Gondak said.
Gondak has prepared his athletes for this meet and he wants them to go out there and do their best. He said he knows the home course advantage is keeping his team confident.
"The meet is extremely competitive, but the bottom line is we think we prepared them to go out and compete well and we want them to do their best. We do well on our home course and I am eager to see what they can do on Friday," he said.
The Penn State team is ready to show off its beautiful school and exceptional talent.
"The kids really like to race on our course and I like showing off State College and our facilities to the other teams as they come in." Gondak said. "Penn State has always done a really nice job when hosting home events and I'm excited to put on a good show for everybody this weekend."
