Following a successful showing at last week’s Valentine Invitational, a last-minute scheduling change will send Georgetown’s indoor track and field team to the Penn State track for the third time this season. The men’s team and the No. 21 women’s team will focus on pushing their runners to earn times that will allow them to qualify for individual events in the postseason.
The team was originally scheduled to race at the Meyo Invitational in South Bend, Ind., but Director of Track and Field and Cross-Country Patrick Henner decided it would be in the team’s best interests to head back to Happy Valley.
“The main thing we would have been going to Notre Dame for is to run the distance medley relay there,” Henner said. “We were already able to accomplish that at Penn State at the end of January. [Going to] Penn State is a much easier trip, and they have got a great track that works really well with us.”
Henner’s fondness for the Penn State track is understandable considering Georgetown’s recent success at the home of the Nittany Lions. At the National Invitational on Jan. 31, junior Ahmed Bile broke four minutes in the 1-mile event for the first time his career while both men’s and women’s distance medley relay teams recorded times that were the fastest in the nation at the time.
Among the other impressive results that the Hoyas have had at Penn State include captain and graduate student Billy Ledder’s blazing 800-meter race that timed in at 1:48.46 at the Penn State Nittany Lion Challenge on Jan. 17., a time that currently has Ledder ranked 15th in the nation.
“The 800 is going to be a big race this weekend,” Ledder said. “Penn State’s track has been notorious for hosting a lot of very fast 800s.”
Alongside Ledder in the men’s 800m event will be freshman Joe White and junior Michael Lederhouse. Eyes will certainly be on Lederhouse as well, who is coming off a sub-four minute performance in the mile event at last weekend’s Valentine Invitational.
Senior Cole Williams will also be a runner to watch as he returns to the track following a flu that kept him out this past weekend.
The 800m event will also prove noteworthy for the women’s team, which has three runners — graduate student Becca Deloache, sophomore Sabrina Southerland and freshman Piper Donaghu — currently ranked in the top 35 in the nation for the 800m.
“This [800m] race this week is all about time,” Deloache said. “This is not a huge meet in terms of numbers of teams, so it is a nice opportunity to have a clean track to run fast times.”
The interest surrounding these two events for both teams is due to the qualifying rules of the NCAA. For a runner to compete in the NCAA Championship, he or she must post a top-16 time in the country.
“In terms of qualifying for the NCAA championships, I would say the men’s and women’s 800s are where we have the best opportunity to do that,” Henner said.
If the success of these past few meets has been an indication of anything for Georgetown, it is that both the men and women’s teams are peaking at the right time. With just one final meet to go before the Big East Championship, the rest of the Hoyas have sensed their gradual improvement.
“Our big goal for the season is that we want as many guys qualified for the NCAA Championships as possible,” Ledder said. “We know we’re one of the best programs in the nation, so we want to have good representation at nationals across the board in all events.”
The same goes for the women, who are also looking to send as many of their runners to the NCAA Championship as possible.
“If you look at our program’s history, it is in February and March that you will see our fastest times and most remarkable races of the season,” Deloache said. “We have set ourselves up for that to happen this year. Expect to see big things coming from us.”
