Two Penn College Teams Finish Third in National Championships

Four Pennsylvania College of Technology fall sports teams went into their first United States Collegiate Athletic Association championships last week and two came home with third-place finishes.

Going into the USCAA championships, Penn College cross-country coach Mike Paulhamus was hopeful of at least a top-three finish. He got his wish twice over as both his men and women teams finished third.

"It worked out perfectly. It was just like I thought it was going to happen," Paulhamus said.

"I figured the two (men's) teams that I had been looking at were going to be hard to beat, and they definitely were, but the biggest surprise was the women. In my mind I thought they would finish fifth, and third place was a good thing. We tied with Scranton, but my sixth girl outran their sixth girl and that's how we were given third place," the coach, in his ninth season, continued.

Dine College of Tsaile, Ariz., placed first in both team races. In the men's division, Dine finished with 17 points, Southern Virginia had 52, Penn College 86, Florida College 92, Warren Wilson 123, Penn State Scranton 190, Columbia-Union, Md. 211, New Hampshire Technical Institute 211 and Williams Trade School 247. In the women's division, Dine had 58 points, Southern Virginia 67, Penn College 79, Penn State Scranton 79, Warren Wilson 96, New Hampshire Technical Institute 131 and Columbia Union 158.

Individually for the Penn College men, Mark Cordeiro (Canton) placed ninth in 28 minutes, 40 seconds. Also for the Wildcats, Stephen Hoffman (Ocean City, Md.) was 15th in 29:46, Jeff Faherty (High Point, N.J.) 18th in 30:08, Corvin Oberholtzer (Wellsboro) 21st in 30:24, Tristan Mummert (Red Lion) 23rd in 30:41, Seth Buckman (Linden) 29th in 30:13, Brad Robinson (West Chester) 39th in 32:17, John Greenwood (Harrisburg) 46th in 33:46, Zach Lengel (Jersey Shore) 53rd in 35:01 and Alex Kahler (Millmont) 61st in 37:35. Dine's Nick Kitruto won the 8K race in 25:14. Seventy-three men participated.

Tamara Pavlov (Lewisburg) led the Penn College women with an eighth-place finish in 27:24. Following for the Lady Wildcats were Holly Schuster (Jersey Shore) ninth in 27:39, Lydia Keckler (Gardners) 14th in 28:35, Abigail Park (Cochranville) 23rd in 29:49, Erin Taylor (Shinglehouse) 25th in 30:29 and Alyssa Giedroc (Howard) 36th in 32:20. New Hampshire's Heather Searien was the winner of the 6K race in 24:44. Fifty-one women competed.

Individually, "we just finished short of reaching All-Americans, they had to finish in the top seven, so that was a bummer for them, but everybody put their total effort into it and probably ran their best races of the season, which is what you want to do," the coach said.

In that this was the college's first exposure to national competition, Paulhamus had said going in that it would be a learning experience. He, and his runners, came away ready for the next challenge.

"We talked and I think we need to up our competition during the season. That's going to be my call for the administration for the coming year. It's nice playing Penn State University Athletic Conference teams and beating them, but if we're going to play on a bigger level -- a bigger platform -- then we need to compete against stronger teams. That will just help us out a little more," the coach said.

"It was a great experience down there (in Buena Vista, Va.). We'll step back and look at this for awhile and then get ready for next season," Paulhamus added.

Women's Soccer In USCAA Women's Soccer Championships in Burlington, Vt., the Penn College women advanced to Friday's semifinals with a 6-0 win over Vermont Tech on Thursday. Bridget Metzger (Montoursville) scored two goals and added an assist to lead the way. The Wildcats held VT without a shot on goal or a corner kick.

In Friday's semifinals the Lady Wildcats lost to Christendom, 2-0, a team they had beaten 2-1 during the regular season, to finish their season with a 9-4-1 record.

"We played very well the first day," Penn College coach Kim Antanitis said, but injuries took a toll in the second game that proved costly and brought an end to the campaign. "We weren't us the second day," she continued.

During her first two seasons as coach, Antanitis' teams were awarded conference titles by virtue of posting the best record in the conference during the regular season. This was the first year that its season was extended for actual playoff action.

"We definitely had a chance to win it all. It was actually very shocking to everybody there that we lost the second day," Antanitis said. "We were probably one of the best teams there. We've never had to play for a championship. We've never had to deal with how injuries add up. "¦ It makes you focus on having more depth and fitness throughout the season to prevent injuries.

"It was our goal for the season to get there. "¦ Seeing what there was there, and the fact that we could have won it if we had played our game, it's definitely looking up for next season. It will again be our goal to go and hopefully next time win a championship," Antanitis added.

Men's Soccer Competing in the USCAA Men's Soccer Championships in Rochester Hills, Mich., the Penn College men dropped their opener on Wednesday to NHTI of Concord, N.H., 4-2, and then were eliminated on Thursday after a 1-0 loss to Columbia-Union College, Md. The Wednesday loss was the Wildcats' first after 13 wins this season and ended their two-season win string at 29 matches. Penn College finished 13-2 with Thursday's defeat.

"I took it hard that we lost, and my players took it extremely hard. They're not used to losing. It's not a good taste in your mouth," Penn College coach Enrique Castillo said.

"We played tough, but it was just a faster pace. In our conference, we don't face many teams to help us prepare for that kind of competition. In our conference, we're able to pass the ball and distribute and have the time, maybe three or four seconds to make a decision when we have the ball. Down there (at nationals), you pretty much have a second to decide where you are going with the ball because (a defender) is right there with you. The speed of the game is so much faster and we're not used to that. It disrupted our flow," Castillo explained.

"Overall, the experience was excellent for us -- to be able to know what we have to do next year. Now, we know the competition we're going to be facing. It's not like they were a lot better than us, it was just the speed of the game," Castillo said. "I'm proud of the guys. I think we represented Penn College well. I think we can compete against any of those teams."