Trackwomen impress at GMU; NCAAs on horizon

Susanne Heyer felt tired, but then a grueling week of practice will make a runner feel like that.

So when Heyer and the rest of the Penn State women's indoor track and field team headed to George Mason University to compete in the Patriot Games over the weekend, she just wanted to run the mile in under five minutes.

Heyer ran the mile in 4:49.02, good enough to finish third in the meet and qualify for the NCAA indoor track and field championships to be held Feb. 7 and 8 in Indianapolis.

"That is surprising," said Heyer, a freshman from Germany who doesn't plan to run the mile at NCAAs. She already qualified for NCAAs in the distance medley and plans to run in that race.

Erin St. John had a similar weekend at the Patriot Games. The senior also wanted to simply run a sub-five minute mile, but she did much better than expected. The senior placed second in the event with a 4:46.25 and also qualified for NCAAs. Penn State's Kim McGreevy won the mile in 4:46.08.

"I had no idea I'd run that fast," said St. John, who qualified for NCAAs in the mile for the second time in her career but, like Heyer, isn't sure she'll participate in the mile come Feb. 7 and 8. "It's not even my event."

Penn State coach Teri Jordan said she was pleased with her team's performance over the weekend against such teams as Villanova, Maryland and Pittsburgh. Though it weren't a scoring meet, Jordan said her squad apparently would have won.

"We're just getting in tremendous shape," Jordan said. "We're pretty healthy and are looking forward to this weekend."

In addition to the quality showings by Heyer and St. John, the Lady Lions placed 1-2 in the high jump. Freshman Felecia Cooksey took first with a jump of 5 feet, 6 inches, while Carleen Martin placed second with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches.

Lady Lion Shakeema Walker placed second in the 200 meter (26.07 seconds); Donna Comrie took fourth in the 55 meters (7.25 seconds). Jill Carroll placed second in the 500 meters (1:19.43), while McGreevy ran a lifetime best 2:12.60 in the 800 meters.

Other season bests included Stacy Suda's 2:59.10 in the 1,000 meters, Allison Glitz's 10:08.71 in the 3,000 meters and Erica Bosler's 56.84 in the 400 meters.

"We had an exceptional showing," Jordan said.

And to think, Jordan thought the weekend would be an off one for the Lady Lions.