Penn State Race Cancelled!!

I seem to remember a certain national champion individual and his team NOT running at Pre-Nats last year either. Can you remember his name or the teams name. I seem to be drawing a blank on this team that didn't "man-up" last year.

JoePa wrote:

malmo wrote:

No he wouldn't. And if he dared do such a pansy-assed thing his athletes would have revolted.

Whether or not Groves would have canceled is irrelevant. The real question is why Penn State was even hosting a meet instead of heading to Pre-Nats in Terre Haute.

It certainly has nothing to do with the budget; the Nittany Lions football team will practically fund the entire PSU athletic department for years to come.

It might have been better to suggest that Groves would have had his teams man-up and compete against the best at Pre-Nats.

chiiiiiiiiiiicago wrote:

I seem to remember a certain national champion individual and his team NOT running at Pre-Nats last year either. Can you remember his name or the teams name. I seem to be drawing a blank on this team that didn't "man-up" last year.

You're an idiot. Try keeping you comments relative.

I drove up for the meet this morning. It looked like all the teams were there warming up when the meet was cancelled. The decision was made around 8:00 this morning. I got passed by the Hoya bus on the way out of town. The course had four inches of snow on it - no big deal, in my opinion. I seem to remember Nationals run in the same conditions a few years back.

snowmanwillrunpennstate wrote:

So...... you plan a major college meet and you have no backup plan...Penn State does not have some other course/park that they could contest the race.... seems like very poor planning on their PS XC coaches/meet management part.....

Where do you think they should hold the race?

Won't the conditions be similar at Lock Haven? It's been raining and snowing for a week over the entire Northeast.

also the course really didnt have any markings because the ground was covered in snow so the race would have been a mess. no one would have known where it was going unless maybe a penn st. kid was leading the race and knew the course really well.

I remember running a training run with 4 or 5 of us in more than a foot of snow in 1979. We ran the difficult roads past the deer pens to the Airport. It was a great, memorable run, mostly "breaking trail" and picking your way through the leaders footprints. I can think of no example of us ever canceling a run or race in college. I'll bet insurance issues and lawyers had the biggest impact on the decision.

So did they run at Lock Haven or not? Results?

Neely Spence of Shippensburg University won in 20:20 over WVU's top girl

Where can we find full results...anyone know?

I remember that, too, Skwilli. We ran in snow all the time. Probably the damned attorneys taking the fun out of everything again. 4 inches. Yeah, I got their 4 inches right here... wait, that didn't come out right.

northstar-pgh wrote:

I seem to remember Nationals run in the same conditions a few years back.

Nationals or even Regionals is an entirely different scenario...I'm sure plenty of teams would have been happy to "tough it out", but why wouldn't most teams try to minimize injury risk for an essentially "meaningless" race?

Add to that the fact that there were trees down on the course, and branches were falling all morning throughout the golf course and most of State College.

That said, I'm sure it would have been a blast to run, and a true test of toughness.

wet & soggy wrote:

Where can we find full results...anyone know?

Great race on the women's side:

http://www.lhup.edu/sports/crosscountry/new_crosscountry/09Results/WOMENS.HTML

I think we ran with RW too. A great time in the snow. Thank Goodness we didn't know any lawyers then!

"Trust me, it snowed. A lot. The course was covered in about 3-4 inches this morning. The big issue were downed trees all over the course. They were snapping as we stood there. So that would not have been a good idea to run, with limbs coming down on hordes of runners. The decision was a no-brainer. It was a tough situation for the Penn State meet folks and they handled it quite well."

that's from the head coach at marist.

1982 D-II nationals, Greg Beardsley won the race, held in calf-deep snow, in 36:49.

Is this the slowest winning Nationals time ever?

Good to hear an honest response from someone who was there instead of opinions from people who are talking about what Harry Groves would have done or how they ran in the snow before.