UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Freshman Julia Paternain (Cambridge, England) continued her stellar rookie campaign with a win on her home turf, the Blue-White Golf Course, Friday at the National Open. As a team, the No. 19 Nittany Lion women captured the team title with a score of 62 points.
"Obviously, we're excited to welcome all these outstanding programs to our home course in Happy Valley," head coach John Gondak said. "I think we put on a really good show for them today. I had a lot of positive comments about the meet and a lot of positive comments about the course. Hopefully this meet can continue to grow and excel in terms of competition we have."
In her fourth race donning the Blue & White, Paternain crossed the finish line in 20:30, which marks her third win of the season, two of which have come at the Blue-White Golf Course. Just 11 seconds after Paternain finished the race, sophomore Alison Willingmyre (Wernersville, Pa.) completed the 6k course in 20:41 to finish fifth overall.
Along with Paternain and Willingmyre, Danae Rivers (Derby, Conn.) and Kathryn Munks (Chester, N.Y.) both tallied top-15 finishes. For Rivers, she ran 20:48 to place seventh and Munks took 15th in 21:01. Moria O'Shea (Greensburg, Pa.) rounded out the scoring for the Blue & White as she ran 21:16 to finish 35th.
"In terms of Penn State, our women obviously came out today on a mission," Gondak said. "We put four women in the top-20 and our fifth, sixth, and seventh really came through to beat a really good Michigan State team and win the competition overall."
Following No. 19 Penn State in the team standings, No. 14 Michigan State placed second (87), and No. 26 Georgia Tech took third (143). With the team win, Penn State has won the National Open four straight times.
In the men's 5.2-mile run, the Nittany Lions ran to a 10th-place finish as a team with a score of 252 points. Individually, Colin Abert (Easton, Pa.) paced the Nittany Lion harriers as he placed 10th with a time of 25:17.
In addition to Abert, Alex Tomasko (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) finished 43rd with a time of 25:47 and John McGowan (Northport, N.Y.) took 53rd in 25:54. Underclassmen Isaac Davis (Cogan Station, Pa) and Owen Wing (State College, Pa.) rounded out the scoring as they finished 71st (26:08) and 87th (26:14), respectively.
In the team standings in the men's race, No. 19 Virginia finished first (61), No. 18 Eastern Kentucky took second (77), and No. 16 Arkansas placed third (103).
"On the men side, we were close," Gondak said. "I think we were shooting for somewhere between fifth and eighth place and ended up tenth. If you look at the point totals, we were only 20 points out of maybe sixth place or seventh place. It's just everybody moving up a little bit more. Hopefully when we host the regional in a few weeks, on our home course again, we can excel at that as well."
The Nittany Lions are back in action on Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Big Ten Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska. The meet is hosted by the University of Nebraska at the Mahoney Golf Course. The Big Ten Championships begin with the women's 6k at 11:45 a.m. (EDT) followed by the men's 8k at 12:45 p.m. (EDT).
"Obviously, meets at this time of the year are about building confidence and hopefully they'll leave this meet with some confidence as we head to the Big Ten Championships," Gondak added.