UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- After finalizing their last regular season meet of the 2021 season, the Penn State cross country team is zoning in on the upcoming Big Ten Championships. The Nittany Lions will remain at home in University Park for their first postseason meet of the year, October 29.
Head coach John Gondak says training will look a little different moving into postseason and he is looking forward to seeing full strength on both the women's and men's side going into the Big Ten Championships.
"Moving into Big Tens the training will change a little bit, we worked on some really good aerobic strength throughout the early part of the season," Gondak said. "As you get to the championship time, you start to refine and work a little bit more, on maybe faster intervals with longer recovery."
"Overall, the footprint will be the same we're really just working on preparing ourselves mentally to get out there and compete and be our best at championship time," he added.
As the team moves into the postseason, meets will look a bit different than regular season meets as far as the intensity and logistics.
"Postseason meets have a little bit of a different intensity to them and they're a little bit different because you're limited in the numbers that you can race. At the Big Ten Championships, we're allowed to race nine and at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, we're allowed to race seven," says Gondak.
"Otherwise, the beauty of our sport is you step on the line and it's first to the finish. We're looking forward to seeing how we can compete and doing the best we can," he added.
Assistant coach Ryan Foster says moving into the postseason, the fitness level is already in place and now it is about going out and executing.
"We really need to get everything we can out of ourselves at the end of the day and be close to 100 percent performance," Foster said.
"In the Big Ten it's a smaller but very high-quality field and the margin for error gets really small. At the regional championship, it's really four or five teams contending for those national qualifying spots and it feels much more like a head-to-head competition than the big invites do," says Foster.
Fifth year student-athlete, Brandon Hontz, said the team is prepared and ready to race after facing some mid-season struggles and he is looking forward to being on the home course.
"We hadn't had our full squad until last weekend, and I think we showed out pretty well and we're looking to keep the ball moving forward," said Hontz.
Hontz added this year will look a lot different than last year for the Nittany Lions after coming off of an injury and says the team has a lot of new faces.
"I was injured last year, and we have a lot of transfers and there are other guys who are stepping up," says Hontz.
The Nittany Lions, both the athletes in their first Big Ten Championship, or those familiar with the race, are looking to keep the momentum moving into the postseason and are ready to perform at the upcoming postseason level.
