For the distance runners the work is continuous.

They arrive to campus two weeks earlier than the start of the semester for preseason training before the start of their cross-country season.

“We take some time off between cross-country and the indoor track season. Over winter break we do a lot of miles,” said junior Jim Boyer.

The distance runners just competed in their first race of the indoor season, as they were still recovering from the cross-country season during December.

“Even now we are still doing a lot of miles; we’re not sharpened for races yet,” Boyer said.

As the season progresses the goal is to pick up more speed and to reach peak speeds at the end of the season.

“At Millersville the indoor season is used to tune up for the outdoor season. Outdoor is what we are really focusing on,” Boyer said.

The workouts and training in indoor track is designed work the runners and move them to an outdoor level of competition.

“We are in a base phase which means we are running high mileage. Girls may be up to over 50 miles a week while some guys are over 70 miles a week,” said junior Brittney Zuver.

When the outdoor season rolls around the athletes will be ready to focus on speed.
The indoor season has more meets than the outdoor season with eight meets in the season.

The sport of track is different than other team sports in the fact that a lot of the time the team will split up and compete in different meets.

“We do this because some people can get into different meets and different competition groups,” said Boyer. “You go to the place that you get better competition.”

This is the first year for the new organization of the coaching staff. Coach Scott Weiser was named the new head coach of the track program while coach Andy Young took over as the head distance coach.

“It is really nice. We have a lot of people on staff now so each event group gets a lot of time with the coaches and it has been helpful,” said Boyer.

This past weekend the indoor team competed in the Orange and Maroon classic at Susquehanna University on Saturday. Indoor track is not team scored so there is no winner or loser only individual scores.

Boyer, along with three other marauders, finished in the top 10 of the men’s 3000-meter run. Boyer finished fourth, sophomore Zach Kelchner took fifth and freshman James McBride came in seventh.

Senior track star Priscilla Jennings won the 3000-meter on the women’s side and beat her top competitor in the days race by 34 seconds.

On the field, senior Lindsay Clark earned fourth place in the shot put and junior Stephen Boyd finished first in the men’s long jump. Boyd jumped 6.48 meters to beat the second place contender by .41 meters.

Twenty-seven jumpers competed against Boyd.

Junior Stacey Bernetskie and freshman Whitney Savoy both finished in the top 10 in the long jump.

Both the men and women compete again at the Bison Open and Multi at Bucknell
January 30-31.

“This meet will have great competition, this is a great opportunity for the team to show everyone what they have against bigger schools,” Zuver said.

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After joining the Millersville track team as the assistant coach in January, Weiser worked under Coach Andy Young and helped to create a name for Millersville track on a national level. After he joined the program the Marauders  sent the largest group of outdoor track athletes to the PSAC championships in the teams recent history.

Young is not leaving the program; he instead will be focusing his attention on the cross country aspect verses the whole program.

“Millersville had never had a ‘complete’ staff of coaches in every event area and we have now filled every position with an experienced coach,” Weiser said.

The re-organizing of the coaching staff will bring a fresh start to the university’s
track program.

Having coaches for each specialized area of track and field provides the athletes and the program stability.

“There is some excitement because we are basically a ‘new’ team,” said Weiser. “We have seen similar schools such as Shippensburg and Kutztown achieve big things and one of the differences is the coaching staff. We have to establish a good system, which I think we are doing, and stay at it long enough to see results.”

The start of the indoor track season on Dec. 6, will be the programs first experience with the new coaching system. The athletes will be focusing on working on attitude.

“We need to walk into meets and whether we feel prepared or not we need to compete like it is the last meet on the schedule,” Weiser said.

The primary focus of indoor track is to prepare the athletes for the outdoor season.
The season is designed to build strength, practice competition and teach technique.

“Most programs, even the best ones, are still feeling things out during the indoor season. The lack of indoor facilities for our sprinters and field event athletes slow that down a bit but we are implementing some things that can help this year,” Weiser said.

Athletes are expected to show up for the season with a competitive attitude.

The coaching staff is trying to teach the athletes the importance of having a professional mind set during the whole season and not just the days of meets.

There are several things track athletes can do not only in practice but off the field to build preparation for performances.

Making good decisions about eating, sleeping, social life as well as the small things like packing your meet bag the night before and bringing extra shoe-laces are all on Weiser’s list for good preparation.

“If you race better being awake five hours before start time and your race goes off at 10 a.m. then getting up at 5 a.m. is just something you have to do, period. Professionalism, responsibility, dedication,” Weiser said.

Aside from learning strategies for good preparation and competitive attitudes the team is hoping to win also, after all it is athletics.

“Track and field is very simple, it is all offense. There is not any complicated strategy—if you can win something, go and win it,” Weiser said.

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The PSAC championship race “was for in my opinion all the bragging rights in the PSAC conference,” said Head Coach Andy Young.

The Marauders endured a tough week prior to the race with devastating injuries to two top-ranked teammates junior Ben Brewer, and senior Jessica Leddy.

This, along with other circumstances, cost the Marauder’s an eighth place finish overall for the women, and a ninth-place finish overall for the men respectively.

“The PSAC Championship was disappointing,” Young said. “The competition was tough. People ran ridiculously fast. We were predicted to be ranked seventh, and our goal was to be ranked fifth so we were a little off.”

For the men’s team junior Adam Malloy finished first for the Marauders and 13th overall in the PSAC Championships.

“Adam had his best race ever by a lot, he had a great race,” said Young.
On the women’s side junior Priscilla Jennings finished fifth overall in the race. Jennings earned All-PSAC honors for her outstanding performance.

“Jennings was bummed about the race, we didn’t back down from her training for regionals so she was really tired,” said Young.

Even though the Marauders were disappointed with their performance in the PSAC Championships they still had an optimistic outlook for the following Saturday.
This was the biggest race of the season the NCAA Division II Atlantic
Region Championship.

“Last year we didn’t do that great at the PSAC Championships, but did a lot better at the regional race,” said Young.

Young also felt a good sense of confidence in his team “the regional race is a longer race, the men are better with a longer race, it gives them more time to catch up and pass other teams. That’s what their problem was at the PSAC race.”

Young was determined that with rest and the right mentality the Marauders would do exceptionally well at regionals.

“It’s all mental now, the team just has to get in the right mental state and push themselves for this last race,” said Young.

The optimism paid off when the Marauders arrived at Slippery Rock University for the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Championship.

Out of the 25 teams competing the Marauder women’s team took 7th place, the men’s team matched that performance with a 7th place finish also out of 25 teams.

Once again, Jennings led her team with a first place finish for the Marauders, and third overall in the race.

Jennings earned her spot on the All-Region team, which is comprised of the top 15 finishers. Junior Brittney Zuver just missed a spot on the team with a finish of 19th overall. Malloy had the first place finish for the men at regionals he finished 26th overall with a time of 33:30 in the race.

Junior Jim Boyer took second-best time for the Marauders, and 29th overall.

The Marauders had a mentally and physically draining season.

They weathered injuries and had their ups and downs. Both the men’s and women’s teams had tremendous performances this season, and the Marauders hope next season will only get better.

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This race was the last hard race the Marauder’s would run until the PSAC regional championships on November 1.

“This race was the last test to evaluate the athletes and the performance and how ready they are for the PSAC championships,” Head Coach Andy Young said.

The Marauder’s passed the test with flying colors.

“Both the men’s and women’s teams had a really good race.” Young said.

The women had some major accomplishments as a team, and also as individuals. Priscilla Jennings broke the Blue Hen’s record for the women with the fastest time ever to run that course. She ran the race in 18:03.56 and beat the old record by 18 seconds.

“Priscilla had a very good race, she had a strategy of going out really hard for the first mile and everyone thought she would burn out but they didn’t know what she was capable of,”Young said.

This marked the second week in a row that Jennings has placed first.   She has now finished fourth or better in her the last four events.

She wanted to not die out, but do the opposite she gained a lead that kept anyone from catching her.

Brittany Zuver had another good race as she placed sixth in the race with a time of 19:09.17. According to Young, “Jessica Leddy had a big break through race; she’s really starting to come on.”

Leddy placed 13th in the race with a time of 19:32.99. The women as a whole came in second place overall the only team to beat them was the host Delaware.

“The women have become very motivated as a team and did a great job of staying together in a pack.” Young said

The men also excelled at the Delaware race.

“Malloy and Boyer had a 1-2 punch in the top ten in the race,” Young said. “They have should do really well at PSAC championships because it’s a longer race that’s what they’re good at.”

Adam Malloy and James Boyer had another to performance for the Marauders.

Malloy finished second with a time of 26:43.95, just under one minute off the first-place time set by Pittsburgh’s Greg Kareis.

Boyer followed just two seconds behind Malloy.

“The men had a really strong pack five or six of them stayed together for a good portion of race,” Young said. “We did well against some tough teams.”

The men’s team took third overall in the race with a total of 32 points.

Delaware, who hosted the event, finished in first place as a team.

They trailed Pittsburgh, who finished with 23 points.

Junior Joshua Foulds placed 20th with a time of 27:16.57.

Senior Ben Brewer finished with a time 27:33.56 and 26th.

The Marauder’s are preparing for the biggest race of the season the PSAC championships that take place on November 1.

They have one race left before the big race, held right here in Lancaster. This Saturday, the team will take part in the Battle for the Buggy at 10 a.m.

According to Young, “We are going to sit our top runners for this race this will give our other runners a chance to step up and really give them a chance to show what they can do.”

The Battle for the Buggy will be the Marauders’ last race before Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships.

The Marauders are at the peak point of training and should be in the best shape of the season carrying them into PSAC championships.

According to Young, “They will have a little more intense training and then will die down (not as much distance) before the PSAC championships in less then two weeks.”

With the team at its peak performance, and the guidance of  Young, along with stand out stars like Jennings, and Malloy, the Marauder’s are bound to do very well at PSAC championships.

Like many people say this one is for all the marbles, and that’s the case for the Millersville cross country team on Nov. 1.

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Priscilla Jennings took her first victory of the season at Franklin & Marshall this past Saturday out of 42 women competing.

She has gone head-to-head this season with top recruits from major division one schools and has placed in the top five for every event this season.

“She is progressing nicely and should have her best performance at the regional championships,” Head Coach Andy Young said. Regional championships take place November 1.

Jennings persevered over a devastating knee injury that caused her to medically red-shirt her 2007 season.

This did not stop Jennings from coming back strong.

During the off-season she trained hard and came back this fall season in great condition.

Jennings was nervous about her first major performance in Penn State after being out for a season but the jitters went away as soon as the race started.

“It was nerve wrecking; this was a big race,” Jennings said. “As many races as I’ve run, each time you always feel like you are on the line with each race.”

From that race on, Jennings never looked back and has shown talent, potential and confidence out on the cross country fields.

Jennings also had successful seasons in both indoor and outdoor track last season.

She competed in NCAA?Nationals in track.

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Both the men’s and women’s teams are ranked in the top ten regionally. The team dominated in their most recent meet at neighboring school Franklin & Marshall on Saturday October 11.

“The team ran the most disciplined at F&M than they havve run all season,” Head Coach Andy Young said.

“Young had both the men’s and women’s teams run a lighter race using the strategy of a threshold, where the whole team runs at a certain pace as a pack until the last mile in which the team can take off in a harder sprint,” senior Priscilla Jennings said.

Jennings said at first this was a harder concept to use because they had to mentally keep themselves at a pace when others are running at a faster pace.

This did not affect Jennings in the long run; Jennings finished first out of 42 women, for the first time this season in the Franklin & Marshall event. Junior Brittany Zuver finished second with a time of 19:07.

“The women had a good race; everyone did a good job of staying together,” Young said.

Jennings was proud of the women’s performance.

“It is going really well for the girls. We have a lot of talent, and are matching up nicely with the tough competition in the PSAC’s.”

The Marauders placed eight runners in the top 16 finishers of the women’s race.

The men’s team had an exceptional day, keeping a close pack together and having a lot of younger athletes step up to the plate. Freshman Adam McBride earned a season best fifth place finish with a time of 26:29.5.

“McBride had unbelievable closing speed he ran his final mile in about 4:40, it was a crazy kick,” Young said.

Four Marauders followed consecutively behind McBride. Five Marauders finished in the top ten out of a field of 28 men.

“The men’s team has come together exceptionally,” Young said. “The team keeps six or seven men together up front. There is a lot of camaraderie on the team. They have potential to upset a lot of top schools in the PSAC’s.”

The Marauders are improving tremendously with every week. Next week’s meet is going to be a crucial meet as it is their final race that they will run hard at, before the PSAC championship meet.

“Next week’s competition is stronger,” Young said. “We have a different plan to run harder from the gun.”

The Marauders will have a couple of intense workouts so that they will be in peak condition for the race on Saturday, hosted by the University Of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. The Marauders will go head to head with big division one schools.

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Although the women’s team did not have stand-out Priscilla Jennings in the Dickinson race, the other girls showed the depth they really have on the team. The women’s team finished with a successful fifth place. Coach Andy Young took the weekend to rest Jennings.

“It was a laid back race, I gave her a workout to do instead,” Young said. “I saw a big improvement from last week, I’m very pleased with their performance.”

The ranked Dickinson College set the invitational up differently than most cross country races. The women could have either run in the 4-kilometer race, or the 6-kilometer race. The men could have either run in the 4-kilometer race or the 8.1-kilometer race.

Coach Young decided who ran in what race based on what he wanted to see that specific runner work on. According to Young, he placed Junior Brittney Zuver and Senior Jess Leddy in the 4-kilometer run to, “work on short-race speed, I wanted to see what they could do on a speed-based race.”

Young was very pleased with what they did in the short race. Zuver finished fifth overall in the 4k, out of a field of 197 runners, with a time of 14:44.97.

Leddy added a time of 15:35.17, finishing 28th overall. Out of 23 schools that competed, Millersville finished sixth with a combined team time of 46:04.29.The hottest race of the day fell upon the women’s 6-kilometer race in which they placed seventh out of 17 schools and turned in a combined time of 1:13:51.93.

The men’s team had an exceptional day at Dickinson. Senior Adam Malloy had a top finish for the team; He finished 10th over all in the 4-kilometer race, out of a field of 187 competitors. Malloy’s finishing time was 12:32.56.

“Malloy had a really nice day,” Young said.

Junior Jim Boyer also had a nice day in the 4k race finishing 14th right behind Malloy, with a time of 12:36.12. Ben Brewer had the fastest time for the Marauders in the 8.1-kilometer course.
Brewer finished eleventh overall out of a field of 192. The Marauders finished 6th overall in the 8k.

The competition for the Marauder cross country team for the men and women was tough. The Marauders were competing against top-ranked division three, and division two teams. “Both the men and women stayed with the top-ranked teams and competed nicely, not one of them matched up poorly,” Young said. One stand-out team ahead of the Marauders was Shippensburg, who has a prestigious program for cross country for both their men’s and women’s team. “Shippensburg’s women’s team looked extremely good” Young said.
Other division three stand-outs included Dickinson and Johns Hopkins who both placed ahead of the Marauders.

The team has a bye weekend; Their next race is the following Saturday October 4. The Marauders are traveling to Slippery Rock, for the SRU Invitational.

“Cross country is different than most sports we might only have five or six really big meets with big teams for the whole season,” Young adds. “This is a pre-national race, there will be a lot of regional teams at the race,” Young said.

This makes the SRU race one of those big meets for the Marauders. The women’s team will be going head-to-head with Slippery Rock’s top ranked regional Women’s team. The men’s team’s challengers will be top-ranked regional men’s teams such as California University of Pennsylvania, Slippery Rock, and Lock Haven.

Young has his team focusing on the future. The Marauders are approaching some crucial races coming up that will make the difference for their season.

His goal for the team is to train them hard so that they are at their peak performance in time for big events such as regionals and PSAC conference championships.

Training cross country teams is a “science,” according to Young. Young had this to say about the Marauders training schedule; “This week will be our last week of high intensity mileage training, we are trying to make them tired and get them at their peak performance.
Once we get them at their peak performance we will gradually drop their mileage training; By the end of October it will be dramatically dropped. Towards the end of October we rest so the teams’ bodies have a chance to tune up approaching the big regional race.”

When cross country runners get to the level that the Marauder cross country team is at now they do not have a day off, a day off for them is a six to eight mile training day.

This team has to be physically and mentally tough to perform at the level they are.

Their commitment level to the grueling schedule they endure is admirable. It is clear that the Marauder cross country team’s hard-core training is paying-off, they have potential to do big things in their meets to come.

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According to Head Coach Andy Young, “The mood was a little jittery for the younger guys and girls on the team-it’s a little intimidating when you are running against such big division one schools.”

The older and more experienced men and women on the marauder cross country team came out in full stride. Senior Priscilla Jennings “performed really strong in her first big outdoor race this fall,” Young said. Jennings red shirted for her junior season due to a knee injury and was anxious to get back. “It was nerve wrecking, this was a big race (because of being out for a year), as many races as I’ve run each time you always feel like you are on the line with each race,” Jennings said. Jennings had nothing to be nervous about-she placed fourth in the 6,000 meter course with a 21:50 time. She held her own, going head-to-head with heavily recruited cross country girls from division one schools like Columbia, Penn State, and Syracuse.

Junior Jim Boyer sprints towards the finish line in the Harry Grove Spiked Invitational. Photo by Barry Walton.

Junior Brittany Zuver also had a strong race. The women’s team took seventh overall at the invitational. “The women could have done better; they have some things to work on; we need to tweak a couple of things and work on certain things with certain people,” Young said. Young is confident that after seeing the performance at this race he knows exactly what to work on to take the women’s team to the next level. “My goal is to get the girls to run a little faster, around 45 to 50 seconds faster,” Young said. “We have a young group of girls who all have a lot of potential, it was their first race; it’s always difficult to get adjusted to the race plan,” Jennings said.

According to Young, the men’s team “Did really well, they had a nice pack and stuck together.” Junior James Boyer turned in the top performance in the 5.2 mile race for the men completing the race in 27:55 and finishing 34th. Adam Malloy brought in another top performance as he finished second for the Marauder men’s team, and 36th overall.

The men’s team finished first, out of the PSAC teams at the race and sixth out of the 14 teams competing. “My expectations for the race were met with the men’s team. They were running head-to-head with the other PSAC schools at the race,” Young said.

Young has taken the results of the Harry Grove Spike Shoe Invitational as an eye opener for what needs to be done to ensure future victories This week they will go back to the vigorous training schedule with the men’s team running an average of 100 miles per week, and the women 60 miles per week. “Coach Young’s philosophy is we have to train hard to be ready for the end of the season,” Jennings points out. “I’ve improved, and gotten stronger with Coach Young’s training schedule; it’s really good we’ve done well with him as our coach,” Jennings said. Young will work to guide his team in the right direction and focus on those specific people who underperformed at last Saturday’s meet.

This Saturday, the Marauders will travel to Dickinson University to take on the Long/Short Invitational. The invitational at Dickinson will be a “milestone race” according to Young. The Marauder’s will be up against fellow PSAC team Shippensburg who has a high ranked women’s and men’s cross country team. The Marauders have a lot going for them, and both players and their coach agree they have potential to be dynamite this season. “We are still progressing,” Young said. “We all trained hard this summer and we are a strong team,” Jennings said.

With Coach Young’s guidance, work ethic, and the depth of talent on the team, Marauder cross country has a successful future ahead of them.

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According to Head Coach Andy Young, the 5K course the team competed on was “a tough, true cross country course” full of hills, grass and dirt.

The conditions on Saturday made it a treacherous muddy mess. Young thinks it comes down to practice, but they cannot account for everything.

“It’s really hard to prepare for the kind of rain that we had on Saturday,” Young said.
Aside from the conditions, Young said he was “very happy with his team’s performance.
This meet was about seeing who can do what. I had eight to nine guys within a minute of each other; the girls also stayed together nicely.”

Young subdivided the co-ed teams as evenly as possible, based on ability and made five overall teams.

Team names included Technicality, Trouble, Tenacious, Tornado and Alumni. Adam Malloy placed first for the men and Priscilla Jennings placed first for the women. Overall, team Technicality took the win with a combined time of 1:19:54.

Sophomore Zach Kelchner (left) and senior Ben Brewer run a wet race while a teammate tries to catch them. Photo by Barry Walton.

The race was set up differently then the Cross Country team’s official NCAA meets. The NCAA determines the winning team based on the number of people on the team that place. The lower the placement (such as first through fifth place) for each person, the better overall points when added together for the whole team.

The Alumni Meet worked differently; the winning team was determined by taking the lowest combined time from the top three finishing women and top two men.

The team is now focusing on their meet this Saturday, at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational in State College, PA.

The host team, Penn State, will be using their “A” team.

The Marauders are ready to accept the challenge, “this will be a good way to look at how
we are doing competing against a team like Penn State,” says Young.

Senior Priscilla Jennings (left) and junior Brittany Zuver fight it out for the top finish in the Alumni Open on Saturday. Photo by Barry Walton.

Other teams include Columbia University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. IUP was “a little ahead of the Marauders last year, so it should be interesting to see how they compete against them this year,” Young said.

The team has been training hard for the past three weeks.

According to Young, “The older guys run an average of 100 miles per week, and older girls run an average of 60 miles per week.”

This week, because of the meet on Saturday they will be cutting down their training so that their bodies have time to rest and they are in perfect shape for Saturday.

The Alumni meet was a “good determinant for how the season will progress,” Young said.

The Alumni Meet along with the meet next Saturday in Penn State will be the “measuring stick for the season,” according to Young.

With a strong team and standouts like Malloy and Jennings, the Marauders are on path for a successful season.

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Both the men’s and women’s teams are in preparation and read to get another season underway.  Coach Andy Young has seen “A significant increase in their commitment.”

“Not that they did not train hard in the past, but they have taken it to a whole other level,” Young said.

The women’s team was selected to finish sixth out of 16 teams and the men were chosen to place ninth out of 15 in the first-ever Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) coaches preseason poll.

However, both teams later received higher rankings by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Atlantic Region Preseason Poll last week.

The women’s team jumped up one spot to fourth place while the men significantly increased after being selected fifth.
Coach Young said that while it is nice to get recognized, they do not put much into the polls.

As far as the difference in the polls, Young feels the team does not get much respect from the other coaches in the PSAC.

The women’s team’s biggest addition may not be an addition at all.
Senior Priscilla Jennings missed most of last season with an injury but now is ready to approach this season after a record-breaking year in track and field.

Coach Young not only expects her to compete at the regional and conference championships, but possibly be in the running for nationals.

While cross country is somewhat of an individual sport, the top seven runners at each competition determine the team’s score.

This means they need more than just one runner to finish well, but this should not be a problem. One person does not make a team, and Young acknowledges this.

“We have quality depth that we have not had in years,” Young said.
Junior, Brittany Zuver, excelled in track last year and is set for a successful season.

“She is ready to run fast this year,” Young said.

Jessica Leddy is one of only two seniors on the team.  After putting up the team’s top finish at last year’s NCAA East Regional, Young thinks she is even stronger this year and motivated to finish her career at Millersville on a positive note.

Other top performers for this year’s team include junior, Jess Jacobson and freshmen Elicia Anderson and Rebekah Moore.  Young thinks this team could be the deepest in the conference.

The men’s team also possesses a lot of depth.  Senior Adam Malloy, was last season’s top performer at the PSAC Championships.
“He’s ready to run and do some damage,” Young said.

Junior Joshua Folds transferred in last season but came in with an injury.  Folds is fully healed and in a lot better shape to make an impact.

Junior Jim Boyer also worked hard during the off-season to put himself at a higher level for this year.  He is expected to have another successful year.

The team will run in the Alumni Open on Saturday.  Young does not put much stock into this particular race and just hopes the team has a good time.

But that does not mean it does not mean anything and hopes to see where his team currently stands.

“I keep telling them, ‘This is the test of your fitness’,” Young said.
The team hopes that this winter they are reflecting on a successful season.

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