After two consecutive weeks of abysmal weather, the athletes on the Penn State men's track and field team saw their first comfortable climate competition this weekend at the 40th annual Sea Ray Relays hosted by Tennessee.
Temperatures in the 80s and a consistent breeze Friday and Saturday in Knoxville kept the level of competition high and several Nittany Lions seemed to be spurred on by the sun. The Nittany Lions earned two new NCAA regional qualifying numbers from much-decorated runner Alex Langan in the 100-meter dash and Matt Lincoln in the 1,500-meter run.
The senior Langan blitzed through the 100 in 10.44 seconds to finish eighth in the talent-rich field.
Lincoln also took eighth in his event, qualifying with a time of 3:47.61.
One might think the award for best performance of the weekend would go to one of those qualifiers, but Penn State head coach Harry Groves said the honor is going to need to be cut into four. The men's 4x800 meter relay team of Erin Otterson, Dan Michael, Mark Miller and Lincoln edged the team from Kentucky by two seconds for one of Penn State's two first-place finishes.
"The weather was all over the place, some people couldn't handle it," Groves said. "They all thought they were pretty hot stuff until the race was over. We got a plaque I could barely carry."
Penn State's best scoreboard presence came in the 5,000-meter invitational field, as Dan Mazzocco and Chris Nirschel finished in the top two spots, running in 14:49.58 and 14:57.29 respectively.
The two Lions strategized their way to the front of the pack, running slowly and letting the weather take over.
"It was real hot and windy, so in the 5,000 -- the way you had to run it was just under control," Groves said. "Our guys did, everyone else just went out too fast. It was windy and hot and it just ate people up. If you went out too fast in anything over 800, you just died."
The 4x100-meter shuttle hurdle team of Shawn Colligan, Chris Morrisey, Adam Stanowick and Caleb Hood finished second, three-and-a-half seconds behind the home team Tennessee.
The team of Tim Johnson, Kyle Pixton, Dennis Pollow and Brian Fuller ran a 10:10.98 in the distance medley, good enough for third place.
"It was mainly a relay meet, but we tried a few individuals. All these races were pretty stacked," Groves said of the field. "You've got to do that every now and then," he said. "Just stick your neck out there and do it."
