What are your thoughts on your team at this point in
your season?
For the women's team, I feel this is one of the strongest
teams overall we've had in the past few years. From top to bottom
we have a strong pack, good leadership from a variety of our women,
and the team chemistry is good. We have yet to run with all of our
women in any meet, and I think when we are healthy and ready to go
at the end of the season, we'll be very strong.
For the men, it's been hard to deal with injuries and sickness from
key returners. Despite being without them we've been second at
every meet we've competed in this year, even when going up against
regionally and nationally ranked competition. I feel this has
helped each of our men realize how important they are to the team
from one through 13.
Who is performing particularly well for the team right now?
For the women, we have been led by Jenna Fatica all year long. She
has run PR's in the 5k and 6k this season, and helped lead our
other women to better times as well. Joining Fatica, Mallory
Souleret has been a consistent #2, Liz Keller and Emily Berry have
contributed with strong races, and Tanisha Wheatley has been
running extremely well. Even as those five have led us,
freshman Lauren Pecor and sophomore Alex Falvo have stepped up and
been contributors to the team as well and are looking very
strong.
For the men, Andy Iams has been running faster and faster times
while leading the Behrend team. After him, we've had a
contingent of runners including Steve Monnie, Justin DiPenti, Rob
Shrawder, Alex Zarger, Carl Kallgren, and Bobby Cizek who have all
been within 75 seconds of Andy at some point this year, and usually
within ten seconds of each other. The pack is running really
strong and that has led to success for our team.
How does the conference look this season?
In my estimation, the women's championship at the conference meet
is probably one of the toughest it's been in a while. Frostburg
State is four-deep with talented runners. Newcomer Franciscan is
strong and beat us earlier in the season, and Penn State Altoona is
the returning runners-up, and they host the championship meet this
year. I feel we are stronger than last season, and as we come
together at the end of the season, I believe we can repeat as
champions.
For the men, the biggest threat in the conference is once again
Frostburg State. They lost two all-conference athletes from a year
ago, but brought in a good freshman class as well as last season's
runner up and track and field All-American Brian Leiter. The
key will be to put our pack in front of theirs at the conference
meet, but they will be strong competition.
What is the biggest challenge facing your team entering
the second half of the regular season?
Getting healthy and staying that way is a key for the men's and
women's teams. If we can stay healthy, we'll be very strong
throughout the season. One thing we have learned in the first month
of the season is that we can compete and do well when someone is
out or someone is having a bad day, but we are obviously much
better when we are all healthy and competing well.
What are your expectations for the end of the season and
championships?
For both teams, our goal is to repeat as AMCC champions, win as
many All-Conference and special conference awards as possible, and
then to go on two weeks later and finish better at the NCAA
regional meet than we did a year ago. Individually, I feel we
have some athletes who are capable of being on the All-Regional
team and some who can run a good race and earn a spot at the NCAA
championships