SO Elizabeth Chikotas (4:46 Mile; 9:31 3K; 16:05 5K)

SR Tori Gerlach (4:22 1500; 9:10 3K; 9:53 3K Steeple; 15:59 5K)

SO Jillian Hunsberger (161st NCAA XC '14)

FR Tessa Barrett (1st FL ’13, 1st NBN Indoor 5K '13, 1st NBN Indoor 2 Mile ’13)

FR Greta Lindsley (4:29 1500)

 

Here’s the thing. Penn State’s probable top five women are really very good. It’s just really very unfortunate that the Big 10 Conference is loaded and the Nittany Lions cannot afford for any one of these five to have a bad day.
 

Elizabeth Chikotas and Jillian Hunsberger had great freshman campaigns, just not at the same meets. Chikotas was Big 10 Freshman of the Year in XC after finishing 15th at the conference championships. She then finished 54th at the Mid-Atlantic Region, where Hunsberger shined and qualified individually after finishing 11th. These types of things cannot happen if Penn State wants a shot at qualifying for the big dance.
 

Tori Gerlach was extremely impressive during indoor and outdoor seasons in 2015. She was the Big 10 Champion indoors in the 5K and was gutsy enough to attempt the 3K Steeple/5K double at the NCAA outdoor championships (Where she finished 14th and 10th after falling in her steeple prelim - not bad). But Gerlach has not been an impressive cross country runner in her first three seasons. She has yet to crack the top 20 over 6K at the conference meet, not something you would expect from a 2x Big 10 track champion. If she races like she does on the track this fall, Penn State’s 1-3 could be outstanding.

One to watch this fall would have to be Tessa Barrett, the 2013 Footlocker XC Champion returning to racing after redshirting her entire freshman campaign. It’s an anything could happen situation with Barrett because we haven’t seen her in so long, but she did hold the HS indoor 5K record for one short season before Anna Rohrer broke it in 2015. Sometimes it’s a lot to expect for someone’s freshman campaign, but Chikotas and Hunsberger did so well in 2014 that coach John Gondak seems to be prepping his first timers pretty well.