CLARION CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS TO START SATURDAY AT PSU

            The Clarion University men’s and women’s cross country teams will start the 2004 season Saturday at the Penn State Invitational.

            “We are going over to Penn State, and that is big time,” Clarion’s 11^th-year head coach Pat Mooney said. “We actually go over there twice this year.”

            Mooney said his team doesn’t have many goals in place for Saturday’s meet and will treat it more like a “time trail” to see where both teams are and what type of runners the Golden Eagles have.

            What Clarion will do is practice a strategy that it hopes to use throughout the season.

            “We want to try to have a pack of runners who will be able to get as close as possible to our two top runners,” Mooney said. “We have a gap after Melissa Terwilliger on the women’s side and David Duriancik on the men’s side. You have to have front-runners to get you going up there and have somebody to chase after. We do have two senior front-runners who are very, very good. We are trying to develop a pack of five to six runners to chase after the top runners. We want to have a nucleus of people to run fairly close. I will control how long they are to do that and then let them on their own the last part of the race. So far, in the last couple of weeks of practice, that strategy has worked out perfectly on the women’s team. On the men’s team, it is not quite ready to be in place. We are banged up on the men’s side and have had a few setbacks physically.”

TERWILLIGER TO PACE GOLDEN EAGLE WOMEN

            Terwilliger will be looked upon to pace the Clarion’s women’s team after becoming the first NCAA All-American in Clarion women’s cross country history with a 17^th-place finish at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships last fall.

            The AA award followed All-Conference (3^rd place) and All-Region honors (4^th place) last season while helping Clarion finish sixth in both the PSAC and Atlantic Region. She was also an All-American in track in 2003 when she finished fifth in the 10,000 as a sophomore. That season she was All-PSAC (6^th place) and All-Region (8^th place) in cross country as well while finishing 3^rd at the PSAC track and field meet in the 3,000 and 5,000. She was fourth in the 5,000 at last season’s PSAC track meet.

            “All-American was a pretty good achievement for her last year,” Mooney said. “When she left the meet last year after taking 17^th, she said she was going to do better this year.”

            For Terwilliger to finish higher than 17^th this season, she is going to have to work hard, according to Mooney.

            “She is going to have her work cut out for her,” Mooney said. “Our conference and our region are very, very strong with distance runners. A couple of people who beat her last year at nationals (from the PSAC) are back. The conference had five or six qualifiers in the 10,000 last spring. She is going to be pushing it all fall long with the regional people. She needs to go one step at a time. We need to see how she matches up with people in the conference before we worry about nationals.”        

Terwilliger will have a new, if not unfamiliar, cast of runners around her. She is the only runner from what Mooney considered Clarion’s top five last year to return.

            “I don’t think I have as much talent as I did last year or the year before (when Clarion finished 2^nd in the Atlantic Region and 3^rd in the PSAC),” Mooney said. “But I think this team will achieve more than last year’s team. Whether or not it will be able to do as well as two years ago, that will be a stretch and too early to tell. We don’t have the outstanding athletes here. However, we do have a good bunch of people here that are working together and working hard. I think their achievement level will be higher than most people predict.”

            One of the reasons Mooney has optimism about this year’s team is because of the number of program kids who have stepped up to fill the holes left by departed runners.

            “We aren’t really young,” Mooney said. “We have some seniors and juniors who look like they are going to be OK.”

            Mooney is looking for big things from co-captains Sarah Rodgers and Missy Harkins. Rodgers finished 48^th at PSAC’s last season and 46^th at Regionals.

            “Those two have gotten better every year since they got here,” Mooney said. “Both were PSAC qualifiers in track last spring. We feel they will do well for us and are doing outstanding jobs up to this point.”

            Joining the two seniors will be junior Katie Jarzab, who finished 74^th at PSAC’s and 57^th at Regionals last season after taking 25^th at PSAC’s and 19^th at Regionals as a freshman.

            “Last year she went down a little bit,” Mooney said. “But we feel she will back in the swing of things this year and will be one of our top five runners.”

            Mooney is also excited about the progress being made by sophomore Tasha Wheatley.

            “You can just see her getting stronger,” Mooney said. “She has had an outstanding summer. She came back with fire in her eyes.”

            Additional runners who have an opportunity to break into the top five include freshman Erin Richards, the Golden Eagles No. 1 recruit who was District 10 champion in her first year of cross country last season, junior Mary Smith and sophomore Autumn Shaffer.

            “I think we are a very experienced team,” Mooney said. “I also think we have some younger kids who are ready to step it up. I hope we can move up in the conference and region. It might be possible to get into the top two in the Region and qualify for nationals. However, I will be able to answer that better in October. I do know we are going to move up, but how far time will tell.”

DURIANCIK TO PACE GOLDEN EAGLE MEN

            Fifth-year senior David Duriancik returns to pace the Clarion’s men’s squad, which finished 12^th at PSAC’s and 17^th at Regionals with a very young team last year.

            Duriancik was 46^th at PSAC’s and 59^th at Regionals in 2003.

            “David works very, very hard at this sport,” Mooney said. “It is very important to him. He has just had some bad breaks injury wise. It just seems that everything hasn’t fallen into place for him when we get to the championship season. However, in my mind, he is definitely one of the best runners on the conference. There is no question about that. With a little luck, he could be All-Conference and possibly qualify for nationals. He is a real quality runner who helps us up front. He is running well right now.”

            The Golden Eagles have a young nucleus of runners to fall in around Duriancik.

            Sophomore Sean Williams showed signs of good things to come last year and finished 90^th at PSAC’s and 79^th at Regionals.

            “Sean is a junior class wise but was hurt his first year here,” Mooney said. “He is very solid, and should be part of our nucleus.”

            Mooney is also looking for big things from junior Matt Reinhold, who has battled injuries the past two seasons.

            “We need a little luck with him, but he is looking very, very good,” Mooney said.

            Fellow junior Matt Andreassi, who took 81^st at PSAC’s and 96^th at Regionals, should also be in the mix along with sophomore Jason South (91^st at PSAC’s; 118^th at Regionals), sophomore Paul Mastarone (74^th at PSAC’s, 109^th at Regionals), junior Aaron Neely and red-shirt freshman Zach Shekell. Mooney is also looking for good things from freshmen Dustin Mitchell, Chris Clark and Jerad Potthoff, although Potthoff is not cleared physically to practice yet.

            “With all these young people back, I think we will be stronger than last year,” Mooney said. “We are banged up a little bit right now. However, I think on paper we should be stronger than last year and move up in the conference. I am real excited about this team and think we can move up.”