Penn College News

Penn College Cross-Country Teams Seek State Titles

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

Having already won Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference regular season crowns, the Pennsylvania College of Technology's men's and women's cross-country squads are primed to complete their final goals claiming Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association 2001 team and individual championships.

"We're looking pretty good. Berks County is our main competitors. We're only beating them by one or two points in each invitational so we can't have any letups," said second-year coach Mike Paulhamus of the men's squad going into Saturday's state meet around the Penn State Blue Golf Course. "We've got to make sure that everybody is peaking at the right time, and we're going to be working hard this week."



Commenting on his hopes for the women's team, he said, "We're going there with the idea of being the state champion."

Leading the seven-runner men's contingent will be sophomore Scott Morgan, a graduate of Pocono Mountain High School. Morgan is coming off a course-record performance of 26:32 in taking individual honors in the men's portion of last Saturday's Penn State-Scranton Invitational that locked up the EPCC crown for his team.

Going into that meet, Paulhamus admitted his men had a big advantage toward the title by virtue of first place finishes in two previous meets, but noted, "We still didn't want to let up. We wanted to attack it and get ready for states."

The Wildcats' normal No. 5 runner, Garrison Fletcher (freshman/Weedsville Central), was out of the lineup at Scranton, but No. 6 Nicholas Ensig (freshman/Neshaminy) came on and helped fill the gap.

In addition to Morgan, Fletcher and Ensign, also running for the College in the state meet will be Bryan Wolfe (sophomore/Warrior Run), Joel Wilburn (sophomore/Woodstock Academy), Robert Thomas (freshman/Jim Thorpe) and Isaac Aeppli (sophomore/New Columbia).

Pacing the Wildcat women is freshman Christine Seward (Pottsville) who, like Morgan, regularly beats the second-place finisher in most races by nearly a full minute. Other women representing Penn College in the state meet will be Becky Snyder (sophomore/Hughesville) and Jessica Decker (freshman/Abington Heights).

Paulhamus described Seward as a "very hard worker," and also offered praise for Snyder and Decker, saying, "Becky hasn't missed a beat from last year. And Jessica, who we caught running across campus one day and asked her to come out, came out and she turned a non-team almost into and, hopefully a state championship team."