Angela Reckart

Angela Reckart enters her sixth season as the assistant coach for the Nittany Lion cross country/track & field program following coaching at North Carolina for three years. Reckart serves as the associate head coach with the cross country programs and coaches the distance events on the track. Immediately adding experience and value to the Penn State track and cross country programs, Reckart has helped guide the Penn State women’s cross country team to a Big Ten Title as well as four NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional titles in her first 5 years in Happy Valley.
 
Reckart helped lead the women’s cross country team to its fourth Mid-Atlantic regional title in the last five years in the fall of 2019. Four Nittany Lions earned all-region honors on the women’s team and Alex Tomasko earned all-region on the men’s side. The women’s cross country team placed in the top-20 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the fifth consecutive year, one of only seven programs in the NCAA to accomplish the feat.
 
In 2019, the Nittany Lions continued to experience success. The women’s cross country team finished in the top-20 in the country for the fourth consecutive season under Reckart. During the 2019 indoor season, Tim McGowan broke the Penn State indoor school record in the 5k by recording a time of 13:46.49.  Since coming to Penn State, Reckart has coached individuals who have broken both the men’s and women’s indoor 5k school records (Tessa Barrett, 15:28.99) as well as the women’s indoor 3k school record (Tessa Barret, 9:07.22).
 
Julia Paternain and Kathryn Munks each etched their names into the Penn State record books during the 2019 outdoor season. Paternain now ranks sixth in the 5,000-meter (16:00.10) and third in the 10,000-meter (33:22.91) all-time in Penn State history. Kathryn Munks ranks 2nd in the 10,000-meter with her time of 33:22.19. Paternain qualified for the NCAA National Championships in the 5k and was the only freshman in the field.
 
On the track under Coach Reckart in 2018, the Nittany Lions recorded five record book performances, won a Penn Relays watch, and posted a medal finish at the Big Ten Championships.
 
In the Penn State women’s track record book, Jillian Hunsberger ran the fourth-fastest outdoor 5k time (15:55.27) and Greta Lindsley tallied a pair of record book times (5th – 3,000-meter steeplechase – 10:11.29 & 10th – 1,500-meter run – 4:20.84). On the men’s side, Colin Abert ran a sub-4 minute mile (3:59.51) for the fourth-fastest time in program history.
 
At the Big Ten Championships, Hunsberger ran to a second-place finish in the 5,000-meter run at the Indoor Championships (16:19.45).
 
On the cross country course in 2017, the Penn State women won its third straight Mid-Atlantic Regional title en route to its third consecutive top-20 finish at the NCAA Championships. Individually, Hunsberger finished seventh at the Big Ten Championships, place second at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, and tally a 75th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
 
The 2017 outdoor season featured multiple successes in the distance events as Barrett and Hunsberger set the No. 5 and No. 6 times in program history in the 5K, Hunsberger and Munks set the No.2 and No. 7 times in program history in the 10K and Tori Gerlach and Lindsley set the No. 2 and No. 8 times in program history in the 3K steeplechase, with a 9:46.76 and 10:11.29. Tim and Jack McGowan finished 2nd and 6th in the men’s 10k, helping the men’s team capture its’ first Big Ten Championship in program history scoring 117-points.
 
At the NCAA National Championships, Gerlach finished third at the NCAA championships in the 3K steeplechase, while Hunsberger posted a second-team All-American finish at the NCAA Championships in the 10K with a 10th-place finish.
 
During the 2017 indoor season, Reckart coached Barrett to a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships posting the second-fastest time that season in the NCAA in the 5,000-meters with her time of 15:28.99 that was one-tenth of a second off the national leader.
 
The second-place finish by Barrett helped the women’s team captured the Big Ten indoor title, the fourth Big Ten Indoor Championship in program history. Barrett would go on to earn All-American honors in the 5K finishing fifth at the NCAA Championships followed by a second-team All-American finish in the 3K the following day. During the indoor season, Barrett set school records in both the 3K and 5K.
 
Reckart was also key in helping Tim McGowan secure a bronze medal at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in the 5K as the men’s team posted their highest finish at a Big Ten Championship in program history scoring 84 points to finish second.
 
The women’s team would go on to win the Mid-Atlantic Regional Title for a second-straight season that saw six Penn State student-athletes earn Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors (Tessa Barrett, Elizabeth Chikotas, Hunsberger, Munks, Lindsley and McGowan).
 
The Nittany Lion women went on to finish 18th as a team in the NCAA Championships led by two Nittany Lions who teamed up to provide a program first with Penn State fielding two All-Americans in Elizabeth Chikotas and Jillian Hunsberger at the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time in the NCAA era.
 
Year two in Happy Valley saw Reckart help lead the Nittany Lion women to a second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The second-place finish by the women’s team included three All-Big Ten honorees in Barrett (First-Team), Hunsberger (First-Team) and Chikotas (Second-Team).
 
During her first year in Happy Valley Reckart was instrumental in the run to the 2015 Big Ten Championship by the Penn State women’s team In Chicago, Illinois.
 
Reckart joins the Nittany Lions following a three-year stint as the assistant cross country/distance coach at North Carolina. The Tar Heel cross country program is coming off a historic season as both teams tallied top-25 NCAA finishes for the first time in school history.
 
The Tar Heel men’s cross country program advanced to back-to-back appearances at the NCAA cross country championships for the first time in almost 40 years. At the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships, the men finished 12th, their highest finish since 1985 and the women placed 22nd. The men also posted a 17th-place finish at the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships. She also helped the Tar Heel women win their first ACC Cross Country Championship Title since 2003.
 
Reckart graduated from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. During her time at TCNJ she was a member of the track & field team and posted All-America honors seven times. She was a member of a 4x400-meter relay that won two national titles. Following her track career, she started coaching at TCNJ by helping with the middle-distance program.
 
Prior to North Carolina, she served as a graduate assistant and volunteer coach at North Florida. Reckart and her husband, Jeremiah reside in State College with their daughter Juliette.