CAREER AT A GLANCE
Gearing enters her fourth with the Nittany Lions as the program’s Director of Operations in 2026-27.
AT PENN STATE
· In 2023, the Nittany Lion women’s cross country program qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time since 2019. At the regional level, the men’s and women’s squads combined for six All-Region honors.
· In her first season on staff in 2023, Penn State’s women placed second and the men finished third at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, marking one of the program’s strongest combined conference performances in recent years.
· Also in 2023, Gearing saw her sister, Rachel, break Penn State’s outdoor 800-meter school record and capture the Big Ten Indoor 800-meter title.
· During the 2024–25 season, Penn State’s cross country and track & field programs combined for 13 All-America performances. The women’s cross country team posted its best NCAA finish in over a decade, placing 15th at the 2024 NCAA Championships, while the men recorded their highest individual finisher since 2013.
· The indoor season featured eight All-America honors, followed by four total outdoor All-America performances, including three individuals and one relay team. Florence Caron earned All-America recognition across all three seasons (cross country, indoor, and outdoor) and became Penn State’s first women’s track & field/cross country first-team Academic All-American in 19 years.
· In 2024, Penn State produced its first NCAA individual champion since 2019 when sprinter Cheickna Traore won the outdoor 200-meter title. Traore set four school records during his graduate season and went on to represent the Ivory Coast at the 2024 Paris Olympics after achieving the Olympic standard while competing for Penn State.
· The Penn State women’s program also finished 20th in the final USTFCCCA Program of the Year standings, marking its first appearance in the rankings since 2017–18. The Nittany Lions were one of the few programs nationally to score points across all three NCAA championship seasons.
· At the 2024 Big Ten Indoor Championships, Penn State was the only program in the conference to place both its men’s and women’s teams inside the top three, with the women finishing second and the men placing third.
BEFORE PENN STATE
Gearing competed at Clemson during her undergrad years and finished her collegiate career as a graduate student at Kentucky where she earned First Team All-America honors on the Wildcats’ 2022 DMR team.
THE GEARING FILE
Personal
Year at Penn State: Fourth
Hometown: Sautee Nacoochee, Ga.
Education: Clemson, 2020 – B.A. in Sports Communication, Kentucky, 2022 – Grad. certificates in Professional & Technical Writing, and Sports, Fitness, and Recreation.
Professional Career
2022-Present – Penn State
· 23-Present – Director of Operations
· 22-23 – Operations Assistant