The needles weren\'t so bad, it was once they were in my muscle when it KILLED.

Bradford senior Erin Hannon had been running, jumping and training for this day for years. But it wasn\'t until this season that she decided to give a multi-event a try. After all, with indoor, it\'s the Pentathlon, which conveniently offers three of her events, the High Jump, Long Jump and Hurdles. All she would have to do is to get some proficiency in the Shot Put and convince her body that the 800 was just a fun way to finish a meet. If she could do that, she\'d be good. But never in her wildest dreams did she think she would win.

Outdoor head coaching position at Methacton, assistant positions at Plymouth-Whitemarsh and Downingtown West, and throws coach at Saint Basil Academy... plus leads on available distancd coaches. Come on people... tell your friends.

After putting up a fight of whether or not I really had to do it, he decided he would try pumping iron into my right arm..as soon as the needle went in, I started crying like a little girl!

During the 10k on the track, sometimes I chant to myself in my head.

Weekend Highlights: Lindsay Regan took over the top spot in PA again with a 12-10 Pole Vault in the Elite Divison at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada. Competing in her first-ever Pentathlon, Bradford senior and Nebraska-signee Erin Hannon rode 1st (HJ), 2nd (LJ), 3rd (55H), and 6th (SP) place finishes to a lead, and then survived the 800 with a 14th place to win by 14 points over Kutztown University\'s Renee Marchand. The Glen Mills throwers are back, big-time. With a one-two-three finish, and season-PRs by the top two at the Delco Champs, Glen Mills now occupies PA#1, #4 and #7. West Chester Henderson and Saint Basil Academy took a meet record and now top PA in the DMR (photo by Ryan Comstock), while a pole vault record also was toppled at the DVGTCA Meet at Kutztown. At Widener in the TFCAGP D1 meet, Joe Berry took down a record in the Pole Vault. In the Semis of the Colgate Women\'s Games, Engineering & Science advances four to next week\'s Finals at Madison Square Garden. To see the deepest throwing field in the state, it\'s best to be west this season, as Allyn Laughlin takes the top spot at the TSTCA Indoor Meet #4 at Pitt. On Saturday at the TFCAGP D2 meet, four records were tied or fell on the Widener University track. At Albright, Tory Toso, Devan Coon and Nick Hilton were all double winners. At the TSTCA Shot Put competition, it was Hempfield\'s night in the ring as their athletes took 1st and 2nd in the girls\' competition, and 1st and 3rd in the boys\'. In Akron, OH, Jasmine Cottle, Taelor Fowler, Channing Richardson, Cardel Johnson, Shawn Anderson, Chris Wolfe and Alex Ita all moved up the PA rankings with some great sprints.

Coghlan leads field for 99th Millrose Games High School Mile - complete entrants lists...

Photo Gallery of 1/21 New Balance Games Girls\' Invitational Mile at NY Armory by MaroonNews, Ridgewood, NJ.

She has speed, strength, and stamina. That makes Liz Costello a sprinter. No... probably more of a middle distance runner. Nah, that\'s not entirely accurate either. Maybe she\'s a distance runner. (Photo by MaroonNews, Ridgewood, NJ)

I am counting down the days until our training camp in Portugal!

Then these Euros like putting huge logs in the middle of the course.

Photo Gallery by Don Rich of the 1/21 Maroon & Gold Classic @ Kutztown University

A big Friday night for TSTCA #3 @ Slippery Rock for the boys 3000 and the girls Shot Put... Ellwood City\'s Jake Walker goes 8:42.9, which is US#1 in the 3000, while Center\'s Allyn Laughlin takes over US#3 and PA#1 with a throw of 45-07. On 1/21 at Kent State OH, Bradford\'s Erin Hannon moved into a three-way tie for US#1 in the High Jump, clearing 5-08. She also went 8.73 for 55H, 17-08 LJ, and 37-05.50 TJ. Conestoga\'s Liz Costello, coming off a storybook XC season, continued the journey of a dream senior season with a 4:56.09 Mile win at the New Balance Games in New York at the Armory. She and Katie Doswell of Virginia separated at 800 meters, and with 200 to go, Costello broke open the race. Her final 800 split was 2:22 according to coach Ryan Comstock. The Simon Gratz boys improved their PA#1, US#3 4x400 to 3:21.19 winning the event. Penncrest sophomore Karen Shump traveled to the University of North Carolina, and came away with a 3rd place Shot Put of 43-01 at the Eastern Challenge. At Kutztown, Easton\'s Chanelle Price was an easy winner in the 800, running 2:16.11. (photo by Don Rich). Also at Kutztown, E&S\'s Trevon Rainford and Cumberland Valley\'s Curtis Bixler both broke 8:58 in the 3000, with Rain ford takin g the final sprint.

I am back to my regular self and my (SCREW IT!) attitude.

NCAA policy concerning athlete travel reimbursement. Answers to a number of questions about athlete travel reimbursement for national meets, and that of parents and coaches. PDF of the NCAA policy concerning athlete travel reimbursement

A USATF Level 1 Coaches School is set for March 17-19, hosted by Villanova University. For information: PDF of the Clinic Brochure for March 17-19 USATF Level 1 Coaches School at Villanova University

Coming through the 800 in 2:12, Villanova\'s Frances Koons, a former PA XC state champ, Foot Locker Finalist and 1600 state champ, set an Armory record, winning the Gotham Cup Games 1000m in 2:47.08. (Photo courtesy of www.wingedfootfotos.com)

50 of the sport\'s legends have donated personal items that are now up for bidding as part of the IAAF\'s 10-day auction that began Monday morning, January 16. The auction, which is being conducted by eBay, is part of the IAAF

The treadmill was hooked up to a computer that ran the test so it would calculate exactly 2000 meters. (It calculates your pace per k and then just has you run 2,000 meters.) Also, the treadmill picks up your heart rate and then the computer takes data from that every 5 seconds and gives the average heart rate per minute. The computer does it all except take the blood (which Fritz does).

Photo Gallery by Don Rich of the 1/14 Dickinson College HS #2 Meet

The sactioning issue is far from settled in PA and surrounding states.

Boys Spring Track and Field Assistant Coach at Downingtown West High School. Track and Field experience a must. If interested please contact James Smith(Head Track and Field Downingtown West) contact info: James Smith email: jamessmith@dasd.org or 610-269-4400 ext 7661

I find myself worrying about whether or not I am training correctly, whether or not I am ready for my first qualifying race on the 21st

On Thursday morning 1/12, one of our MileSplit Network serves suffered a complete collapse, thanks to a corrupt operating system. No, it wasn\'t a member of either political party, just an innocent victim. The database, which resides on a separate server, was untouched. But we had to move the contents of the webserver to another healthy piece of hardware and then wait for the internet to referesh itself so you could see our site again. Sorry for the delay.

Anyway

XC State Champ and Foot Locker Finalist Liz Costello returned to action, and immediately set a PR in the Mile with a US#5 5:06.00. North Allegheny\'s Max Brown selected the 3000, but the result was the same, a win... posting a PA#1 8:50.9. Gil Sean of North Allegheny, upped the ante in the Pole Vault, leading PA now with his 15-0. Caitlin Hewitt, Latrobe, joined Easton\'s Lindsay Regan at the top in PA with a 12-0 Pole Vault. At the Montgomery Invitational in MD, West Catholic won a ton with 1st\'s in the 4x200, 4x400, 400 and 800.

Our tentative schedule for onsite meet coverage for the 2005-2006 indoor schedule is now published.

I tend to only change one thing at a time.

Other than the obvious talent and work ethic of this year\'s class of Foot Locker Finalists from Pennsylvania, each of these runners share something else

Photo Gallery of the 1/7 TFCAGP Division 2 Meet #5 @ Lehigh University

Photo Gallery of the 1/7 TFCAGP Division 1 Meet #5 @ Lehigh University

...they never race in training. (It leads to no good, I promise.

Every year we get questions about the entry standards for the PTFCA Indoor State Championship. The easy answer is, they change every year, depending on the performances. It\'s a ranked system. To see the official state rankings, see PTFCA\'s official web site 2006 Official PTFCA rankings. To see what it took over the past four years, click the year of your choice. 2005 PTFCA Indoor Entry Cutoffs 2004 PTFCA Indoor Entry Cutoffs 2003 PTFCA Indoor Entry Cutoffs 2002 PTFCA Indoor Entry Cutoffs

It is the weekend of meets statewide, with the TSTCA getting underway at Slippery Rock, a meet in State College, and college-hosted meets at East Stroudsburg, Kutztown and Lebanon Valley... plus a big meet at the NY Armory, the two-day Hispanic Games. Remember, if we don\'t receive results, we can\'t publish results. Your help will ensure our coverage is timely and complete! Thank you.

Like my brother, I also believe it is important to work on the variables under your own control!

Duriel Hardy, the #1 runner on PA AAA State Champion West Chester East\'s cross country team, has made a verbal commitment to attend Syracuse University...

FritzBoss told us that we are supposed to do a lactate threshold test in the next two weeks sometime.

A little over four months after launching our Team Administration capabilities, 58 PA coaches or authorized alum/parents have signed on... with quite a few using virtually every capability of administering their own team page on PennTrackXC.com, including adding dual meets, schedules, rosters and more. Check out the ones who have been most active to date. Colleges can also manage their own pages.

Ryan Whiting (Central Dauphin,Pa) was the #1 U.S. prep in the shot put and discus to earn selection as the Eastern Athlete of the Year. Whiting, now a freshman at Arizona State, set an Eastern Indoor Record of 68-11 1/4 in the shot, then threw 70-feet even outdoors, just missing fellow Pennsylvanian Ron Semkiw

The West Chester East and Manheim Township boys... and Latrobe girls cross country team have finished the 2005 season ranked in the top 50 nationwide by the Harrier Magazine. East finished 6th in the Northeast, with Manheim Township one spot back. The Latrobe girls are 7th in the Northeast. Individually...

The Strath Haven (Delaware County) boys are looking for a full time spring assistant track coach. More...

Erin was a latecomer to track, not starting until the 8th grade. But it doesn\'t mean she wasn\'t active before that. In fact, much of her ability in the motion aspects of the jumps can be traced to a long career in gymnastics. She started when she was five...

Someone told me that it dates back really far and it started to scare the ghosts out of the town for the new year!