Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/115002
NOTEBOOK MEN���S TRACK & FIELD Loxsom leads PSU at NCAA indoor meet Paced by a runner-up effort from Casimir Loxsom in the 800-meter race, the Nittany Lion men���s squad totaled 19 points ��� tying for ninth place in the team standings ��� March 9 at the NCAA Indoor Championships at Arkansas. Also capturing firstteam All-America status was redshirt junior Will Barr, who finished sixth in the men���s weight throw. The Nittany Lions finished in the top 10 for the first time since 1975, and their 19-point total is the highest in program history. FENCING PSU qualifies 11 for national meet Eleven Penn State athletes qualified for the NCAA Fencing Championships during the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional on March 9 at Lafayette College. Six Nittany Lions placed within the top three of their event, including a sweep of the men���s foil top three. Princeton was the only team that placed more in the top three of their events, with nine. Nationals will take place in San Antonio, Texas, on March 21-24. MEN���S GYMNASTICS Burbar���s record score paces Penn State Junior Wasef Burbar set a school record on the high bar with a score of 16.000 in Penn State���s 446.850403.300 victory over Springfield Feb. 25 at Rec Hall. Burbar���s score is the fourth-highest in NCAA history. ���The feeling is indescribable to be perfectly honest,��� Burbar said. ���I never thought I���d get a score that high.��� PRATO CONTINUED FROM 41 O���Brien���s success last season despite the horrendous NCAA sanctions has ameliorated any hard feelings for most, and at this point there aren���t too many people around the football office now who were there prior to the hiring of O���Brien. I sympathize with Sebastianelli and many of the others who have been removed from the football program since O���Brien���s arrival. I know a lot of them, and they are good people. Wayne is not only a fine man but also my personal orthopedic COLES CONTINUED FROM 39 senior technical support specialist within the company���s data center operations and is still working out of Pittsburgh. Shortly after leaving the USFL, he met his future wife, Raella, on a blind date. Today they are grandparents of 4-year old Nina, daughter of their oldest daughter, Tarae, 30, and have two other daughters: Nikki, 22, and Janay, 20, a sophomore at Penn State. Coles said he returns to Penn State a couple of times each season for football games and also gets together a few times a year with some of his former teammates who live in the Pittsburgh area. ���The friendships I built up are unforgettable,��� he said. ���The total friendships I built up are unforgettable. The guys were great, and I was happy to be part of those teams. The injuries [I had] were my biggest disappointments being there. And when I look back at my time at doctor, and I trust him with my knees, shoulders, ankles, thumbs and every other bone in my aching, nearly-76-year-old body. I am happy he is still going to be connected with the university and the athletic department���s other sports team, and I would truly miss him if he left town. However, the long Paterno era is over. It���s now Bill O���Brien���s kingdom. We don���t know how long it will last, but when it does come to an end, the firing minuet will start all over again. As Vito Corelone says in the Godfather books and movies, ���It���s not personal. It���s business.��� Penn State, I really felt like we should have had three national championships, given the level of talent we had in my three years there.��� After his final season, Paterno praised Coles as ���one of the best blocking running backs we have ever had at Penn State.��� However, his career statistics are modest, with 916 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 190 carries, 20 pass receptions for 152 yards, two pass completions for 64 yards, and nine kickoff returns for 155 yards. Coles just missed finishing among Penn State���s 1,000-yard career rushers ��� there are 39 ��� and the only place in which his name appears in the team���s record book is as one of 84 backs who have rushed for 100 yards or more in a game. Those statistics might have been symbolic of his somewhat frustrated Penn State career, if not for that monumental minute in 1982 in that Legion Field locker room.