UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 19 Nittany Lion women worked as a team to defend their home course, the Blue-White Golf Course, en route to a first-place finish at the National Open on Friday, Oct. 12. The meet consisted of several nationally ranked teams, but the Nittany Lions were able to successfully compete, with the women coming out on top with a score of 62 points.
Freshman Julia Paternain persisted throughout the entire 6k race and was able to finish first overall to lead the Nittany Lion women. She was determined and ferocious with the support of her teammate, Alison Willingmyre, pushing her limits during the course.
"I had Ali really helping me for a lot of the course which was great," Paternain said. "It was helpful that we worked together. We kind of tripped at the start and we had to lift each other up to get into a better position. I really enjoyed racing with this team."
Being a new member of this program, Paternain is thrilled with the support and help of the staff and her teammates. The program support is something new for her this year.
"I'm so used to racing individually and not for a team. It's completely different having people to race with. Everyone is so nice when you finish a race and they are all so happy for you," Paternain added on the support from her teammates.
Head coach John Gondak was thrilled about the women's team and all of his athletes' performances. He felt that they overcame a very competitive field and is ready to see what they can do in the upcoming postseason.
"In terms of Penn State, our women obviously came out today on a mission," Gondak said. "We put four women in the top 20 and our fifth, sixth and seventh really came through to beat the other teams and win the competition overall."
On the men's side, Penn State had some strong results, taking away a great learning experience from the weekend. They have learned how to run together and support each other throughout the course.
"For the men's side, we were close," Gondak said. "I think we were aiming for somewhere between fifth and eighth place and we finished tenth. But if you look at the point totals we are are only twenty points out of sixth or seventh place. It's just everyone needs to move up a little bit more."
Gondak felt that the women's and men's team worked well together by pushing the race pace.
"There were packed up in groups of two throughout the race," Gondak said. Whenever you are side by side with a teammate it always helps. The men did the same thing, they just need to be up a little bit further in the race."
Overall, both teams learned a lot from this meet, and every student-athlete is excited for more improvement as they enter the end of the season.
"I think they can look at where they positioned early on in the race and then where they finished from there so they can work to be better at that," Gondak added. "Obviously, meets at this time of the year are about building confidence."
The meet was able to build confidence for both programs, and Gondak enjoyed showing off his home course to the great teams that came into State College.
"I am excited to welcome all these outstanding programs to our home course and Happy Valley. I think we put on a really good show for them today. I got a lot of positive comments about the meet and about the course. Hopefully this meet can continue to grow."
