Page 6
Sports Scoop
By Kevin Spiegel
Bright sunshine, some quick-picking
country music, all the Pepsi you could
drink, and a field of 424 runners were
just a few highlights of last Saturday's
10,000 meter run at Capitol Campus.
It was the First Annual Pepsi Chal
lenge Race, and it turned out to be a
magnificent showing by some incredible
athletes. Runners from all over Pennsyl
vania paid their entrance fees to partici
pate in the qualifying race, with the male
and female overall winners to be flown to
New York to compete in the National
Pepsi Challenge 10.000 meter run. In
New York top challengers such as BM
Rogers and Craig Virgin will be compet
ing. Thus, this race was no "rinky-dink"
event; it was "big time"!
The race started at 10:00 a.m., when
424 official runners left the starting line
with one thing in mind: finishing! After
the first mile, Somerdale's Rick Blood
had about a one second lead over Tim
Waechter. Blood's time was four min
utes, 52 seconds. Carol Fridley of Eliza
bethtown was the first lady across the
mile barrier, at a time of 5:43. It had
become a two-man race between Blood
and Waechter,as they paced themselves
through the long and grinding Capitol
Campus course.
Going out to view the race from
different locations, I saw Rick Blood and
Tim Waechterleaving Meade Heights as
the majority of the runners was just
entering the area. The other runners
just couldn't believe how fast Blood and
Waechter were running. In fact, Tony
Beccone, who had the best seat in the
house riding in the police escort car,
informed me that the leaders were
running at a 13 m.p.h. pace. Sounds
slow? Try running it for 10,000 meters.
continued on next page...
400 plus Take Pepsi Challenge:
Blood's The Real Thing
Rick Blood (above), prophetically wearing number one, captures the grand
prize at the First Annual Capitol Campus 10,000 Meter Pepsi Challenge. Another
rdnner (below, left) muscles his way to close the gap at the first mile mark last
Saturday.
By Joe, I Think We've Got It!
Maybe?
By Darrell Reider
"Bring on Temple!" is the chant
resounding through State College this
week after the Nittany Lions handled
the 12th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers
last Saturday, 30-24, to improve their
ranking among the leading colleges and
universities across the nation.
For years, the pollsters (namely
coaches and media representatives) hive
blamed Penn State's weak schedule for
the school's consistently "biased" low
positioning in the Top Twenty. Satur
day's game, in which the Husker attack
was limited to the middle two quarters,
should necessitate a solid spot atop the
wire service polls. The win should also
alert the big wheels at ABC Sports who,
after Nebraska lost ite season opener to
unheralded lowa, decided to substitute
the Boston College-North Carolina game.
(By the way, the Tar Heels embarrassed
the BC Eagles, 56-14. You decide which
game was worthy of network airtime.)
Running back Curt Warner and
placekicker Brian Franco provided most
of the offense against the midwest
nemesis who had dumped Penn Stati the
past two years on national television.
Franco set a new Nittany Lion record for
most field goals in one game, five, with
consecutive boots of 29, 48, 89, 20, and 82
yards. He surpassed the old mark of
four, set by the Bahr brothers, Matt and
Chris, during their years at Happy
Valley.
Warner, also looking to rewrite some
outdated state in the record book, fell 12
yards short. However, his 288 yards on
carries (an 8.5 yards per carry
average) did set a personal career high
for him. Barring any injuries, Warner
hould lead the Nittany Lions to a bowl
pearance and, hopefully, a national
Capita
IM=llli
Photo by Mark Baer
Photo Club
championship. The junior tailback from
Wyoming,, West Virginia, must be con
sidered for this year s Heisman Trophy,
awarded to the nation's outstanding
offensive player. Coach Joe Paterno is
really high on his running back, calling
him one of the best backs m the country.
Well, it's time to file the stets in the
NCAA record books and look toward
this Saturday's contest against the
Temple Owls at Beaver Stadium. It's the
annual All-U Day game, one that enables
students from the cornmonweejth and
branch campuses to join the more than
80,000 fans and -cheer the Nittany Lions
to win number three. Temple has im
proved on some weakapots that plagued
last year's team by adding some new
faces, including a few often-town trans
fers from the now-defunct football pro
gram at Villanova. Come out and support
the number one-bound Nittany Lions,
and enjoy the traditional tailgate party
as well as the action-packed collegiate
football.
By the way, for new readers, this is,
the bimonthly column where we do our ,
best to cover Penn State sports, especi
ally here at Capitol, something rarely
given in-depth coverage by previous
sports editors. We welcome anyone
interested in assisting our .coverage-Just
stop in the C.C. Reader office in W-129.
I:i C /r;1
Name the only major college football
team to appear in all the major bowl
games at least once.
Answer next issue.