Catch me if you can

Freshman trackwoman 'Toyin' with greatness

Sometimes good guys, or in this case women, finish third.

Penn State's track program was the third choice for freshman Olutoyin "Toyin" Augustus, but in the end it was the right one.

"North Carolina and Georgetown were my top choices," Augustus said, "but I am really happy that I chose Penn State."

Augutus truly defines the term track and field. For Penn State, she competes in the 55-meter dash, 55-meter hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump.

Penn State coach Teri Jordan didn't even know about Augustus until she got a call from Wendy Truvillion, a former Lady Lion assistant coach and a friend from Atlanta who helps Jordan recruit.

"Wendy got to see her compete in high school and had nothing but great things to say about her," Jordan said.

Augustus graduated from Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville, Ala., where she was All-State all four years of high school. She currently holds the state record for the 55-meter hurdles and triple jump in indoor and the 100-meter hurdles outdoors.

Growing up, Augustus never looked up to stars such as Jackie Joyner Kersey. Instead she looked up to Seun Augustus, her older sister who runs track at George Mason.

"We were the best of friends and the worst of enemies," Toyin said. "I always looked up to her and I learned a lot from her."

With Seun at George Mason and Toyin at Penn State, the two use their imaginations to keep the rivalry going. Every time Toyin practices the triple jump, she marks off the spots she wants to jump from with a piece of tape. She then writes her sister's name on all the pieces of tape.

"It is just something that we have been doing since I started competing," Toyin said.

Toyin accomplished a lot in Alabama, but it wasn't the state she was looking to stay in. She was looking for something bigger, and hopefully better.

"It was my decision," she said. "I wanted to go to a big school that was away from home."

She also liked what Penn State had to offer outside of track and field.

"On my visit, the people around here were great," Augustus said. "I was impressed not only with the coaching staff here, but also with the Smeal College of Business Administration."

Augustus, a business management major, already has a plan for her future -- which includes competing for her native country Nigeria someday in the Summer Olympics -- after college. But business might not necessarily be in that plan.

"I want to run professionally after college is over," she said, "but I still need something to fall back on."

That, however, is all in the future. Right now, she just wants to concentrate on improving.

Augustus got off to a great start this season, but she has been somewhat inconsistent. In her first collegiate meet at Rutgers, she took first in all the events in which she competed. Two weeks later, at the Boston Terrier Classic, she took fifth in the 55-meter hurdles, but then struggled the next week. She failed to place in anything at the George Mason Patriot Games.

Jordan thinks that consistency can only be corrected with more competition.

"Experience will be her greatest teacher," Jordan said. "She will only get better as she competes in more events."

This may be a classic example of how nice girls finish third, but Augustus hopes to keep finishing first.