Season Recap from Coach Carei

   Recently, Penn State Fayette track & field coach Joe Carei spoke about this past season, the program’s first full campaign since winning the 2019 United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) men's national championship.

“The season went well, and it went pretty much as expected,” he said. “We always look for improvement in our athletes as a measure of success and that went as planned, everyone had PRs (personal records) in their events.  Although we didn't defend our national title we were satisfied with our placement at this year's meet.”

The women finished fourth at the USCAA's while the men were fifth.

When asked about the highlight of the season, Carei did not hesitate to mention Chloe Kalp (Melcroft, PA/Connellsville HS) and her effort at the USCAA championships. 

“The highlight of the season was Chloe winning 5K and 10k at Nationals,” Carei said.  “This is an extremely difficult double.”

When asked about next season, Carei was honest.

“It will be a reloading year, but we have a base we can work off with,” he said. “Of course, Chloe will be our top returner, but we have Jennifer Zelenick, who was our top thrower on the women's side.  For the men, our returning top athletes are Jacob Noel, Ethan Mates, Logan Miller and Cooper Salvay.”

Zelenick (Fredericktown, PA/Beth-Center HS) and Noel (Greater Latrobe, PA/Greater Latrobe, PA) are throwers, Mates (Mt. Pleasant, PA/Mt. Pleasant HS) is a distance and mid-distance runner, Miller (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) jumps and Salvay (LaBelle, PA/Brownsville HS) runs sprints.

A key could be other possible returners.

“The top priority is to get our athletes that opted out of the season back in the fold,” Carei said. “Covid, injuries and academic-related reasons kept several of our athletes from competing this season.  It was an anomaly, but I think the last few years had a huge effect on our student-athletes.”

Will there be a different approach to next season?

“Not sure we need to do anything different, as our athletes performed to the best of their abilities and all finished with PRs in their events,” Carei said. “Just looking forward to a positive experience for the athletes returning and next year’s new team members.  Recruiting-wise, we are on the trail.  We have added a couple of athletes and will try to continue to add to the team.”

For more information on the Penn State Fayette track & field team, go to https://psfathletics.com/sports/track/index or follow the team on Instagram @fayetteathletics.