University Park, Pa.- Not only did Penn State's track and field program kick off its 2020 indoor season on Saturday, Jan. 11 with their annual Nittany Lion Challenge, but their first media day session of the season also took place in the last week to get the season going.
Head coach John Gondak as well as graduate student middle distance runner Billy McDevitt (Newtown Square, Pennyslyvania ) and sophomore pole vaulter Carena Nottoli (Landisville, Pennysylvania) spoke to the media Tuesday afternoon.
Gondak said both McDevitt and Nottoli are point scorers who are expected to be significant contributors to the team's success. He is also very excited for the indoor and outdoor season, as he was pleased with the performances he saw Saturday.
The Nittany Lions' numerous personal-best performances at Saturday's meet are credited to a plethora of positive characteristics the team has this year.
Here are a few takeaways from what the track and field program is focusing on, heading into the new season:
Leadership
The four captains of the men's team include senior Michael Biddle (Williamsburg, Pennsylvania), junior Darien Williams (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania) and sophomore Noah Swaby (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), as well as McDevitt. They are just some of the student-athletes who are expected to act as leaders for the program this season.
For the women's team, their captains include seniors Kiara Lester (Wenonah New Jersey), Danae Rivers (Derby, Connecticut), Maddie Holmberg (Greensburg, Pennsylvania) and junior Madison Smith (New Oxford, Pennsylvania). Gondak said the women's four captains will also be greater leaders for the program.
All eight captains have had great success at Penn State so far, and many NCAA and Big Ten Championship titles are held between them.
The captains are expected to help mentor freshmen and newcomers on their training to make sure they become as successful as they have been. Eventually, when the mentees become upperclassman, they are expected to do the same for the incoming class.
"I think it's key," Gondak said. "It's something we that we have had some very good people do over the years. That's why I started off talking about our captains—our leaders. They have done a great job with helping our younger athletes understand what it takes to be successful at this level."
As a graduate student, McDevitt has given some of his knowledge to the younger athletes on the team.
"We won our first Big Ten title back in 2017," McDevitt said. "I was a sophomore then, so we still have some kids on the team that were there when that happened. I think just passing along what it took to get to that point, or what it was like to finally win for the first time was big."
A "Powerhouse" Pole Vault Team
Not only did pole vaulter Katie Jones win at the Nittany Lion Challenge and is currently ranked 11th in the NCAA women's pole vault, but the entire women's pole vault team is expected to excel.
"I think this year our pole vault group is probably the strongest we have ever had," Nottoli said.
Including a comeback from Jones after an injury last year, the team is also expecting a lot of promise from two freshmen—Haley Zurich and Erica Ellis.
Nottoli finished fourth in the pole vault in the Big Ten Indoor Championship last year, and she said she is hoping to improve and score higher in the Big Ten Championship this year.
"I feel a lot stronger than I was my freshman year," Nottoli said. "I gained a lot of technical work my freshman year, and I've been doing a lot more technical work this year, and in the weight room I've gotten stronger. So, I think this year I can just build off of what I had last year."
"I think this year we have a powerhouse team," she added.
A Well-Balanced Program
Over the last 14 years that Gondak has been a member of the Penn State program, both as an assistant and six years as a head coach, a well-balanced track and field program has always been a priority, and the coaching staff works hard to implement that balance.
While it may be easy to build-up one event area, Gondak said the coaches have been successful in finding competitive student-athletes across almost all of the event areas, and those athletes are expected to compete in the Big Ten and at the national level.
"It's hard to find somebody who is going to come out and be one of the top 16 in the country as a freshman," Gondak said. "We've had a handful of people over the years do that, but most of our people that get to that level have developed to get to that level."
The large number of student-athletes who have shown continued growth and development within the program serves as a sign of what the coaches are doing.
Strategical Redshirting
Gondak said the entire coaching staff has been excited to get the season started, and part of that is credited to redshirting certain student-athletes last season in an effort to have a solid team this year to heighten their chances for a championship.
One of the athletes that was strategically redshirted was senior captain Maddie Holmberg. If she competed the full season last year, she would only be eligible for one more outdoor season. Senior David Lucas was also redshirted last year during the outdoor season, so he would not have to finish his time at Penn State with only an indoor season.
"We strategically redshirted them with a kind of a focus on trying to make a run at a championship this year both on the men's and women's side," Gondak said.
However, with a focus on winning a championship this year, strategical redshirting will not win a championship alone. Gondak said it is very important that everybody continues to be healthy and has the mindset of a champion—and that comes with load management.
Load Management
The track and field program does use load management in some aspects to ensure that the student-athletes who have had some injury issues over their career are careful with their racing or training volume, so that recovery and competitions builds simultaneously.
"We have all ranges of athletes in our program," Gondak said. "We have some that are developing that we hope in a year or two can be Big Ten-level athletes, we have the people that we know are Big Ten-level athletes, and people that we know are NCAA-level athletes. You plan out their seasons based on how long you think their seasons are going to go, and what's going to be most beneficial for them."
Gondak said he also has had a goal to progress on not only athletics, but on academics as well. Last year, both programs have progressed academically with over a 3.0 GPA.
That load management and talent, both on and off the track, lead to high expectations for 2020 in Happy Valley.
The track and field team will compete again on Friday, Jan 24 and Saturday, Jan. 25 at the Rod McCravy Memorial Track and Field Meet in Lexington, Kentucky, and at the Dr. Sander Invitational in Armory, New York.
