The Scarp Show

When the top PA high school runners were choosing their colleges in the spring of 2010, fans of the sport looked for the big names: Brad Miles, Rad Gunzenhauser, Tom Mallon. Fans also were attracted to the roster of stars Penn State was adding to their team highlighted by Brady Gehret (46.39, 21.12, 9 time state champion), Matt Fischer (9:03, 3200m State Champion), Bernard Bennent-Green (47.94/1:56, 4x4 Indoor State Champion, part of state best 3:13 at Penn Relays). All these phenomenal performances overshadowed one runner on both lists: Nick Scarpello.
Nick Scarpello, who graduated Central Bucks West High School in 2010, chose to attend Penn State University after an impressive career. Nick is an engaging and intelligent runner focused on what he needs to do to be the best and accepting nothing short of it. Anyone who has seen Nick finish a race with gritted teeth knows he puts everything he has into the sport. He also passed on his knowledge and support to his teammates helping to create a solid group of young talent. Anyone who has talked to Nick knows he will give straight answers and tell it like it is. His confidence is contagious. Nick’s story over the past year is truly noteworthy as an example of what hard work, confidence and determination can bring.
As a senior at CB West Nick raced to a 15:42 5k PR and a 15th place finish at the 2009 XC State Championships. After a breakout season on the grass, Nick came indoors with big goals. An 8:47 3k in the middle of the season caught the attention of penntrack’s posters and after a 4:18 mile at the Meet of Champions, some fans (myself included) were picking Nick for the win. Unfortunately, a slow opening quarter played to the strengths of cross town rival Tom Mallon, who would finish first in the race. Nick finished 4th.
However, a tough defeat indoors did not keep Nick down for long. Early in the outdoor season in a dual meet with Hatboro Horsham, Scarpello, paced by the Hatter’s Kevin DiFlorio’s blistering opening laps, unleashed a 4:15 1600m. The time was very quick for that early in the season. Yet misfortunate would strike Nick again as an injury caused him to miss out on Penn Relays and seriously set back his training. Individual glory in the 1600m would not come this spring. However, Scarpello still mentored and anchored a fairly young, up and coming CB West squad to a school record in the 4x800 and a second place finish at the state championships with a time of 7:44.13.
Because of the setbacks in the spring Nick did not come into the fall cross country season at Penn State as a “big star”. Most saw him as a nice fit into a solid cross country team, but not a top 7 performer on a solid Big Ten squad. But as the season progressed, Nick quickly became one of the top freshman XC runners from PA’s class of 2010. And his team seemed to have the same persona as he did, flying under the radar. “Penn State may have surprised some people this year” Nick explained, “But we certainly didn’t surprised ourselves.” Nick describes one of his favorite races as his 10k on Penn State’s grueling home course. Once again he ran fast when he was counted out. “[I was] Considered likely out of it halfway through the race, I negative split the uphill back half of the race and moved up quickly through a field of runners that was fading fast”. His team’s finish at the Regional meet helped qualify them for the National Championships where Nick would be the only PA graduate from the class of 2010 to compete. Not a bad start for a guy who finished 15th at States only a year earlier.
Nick feels his success started with solid high school training. Doing around 50 mile weeks in high school Nick’s focus was “quality, not quantity”. With teammate Matt Bee (currently a senior at CB West), he kept his maintenance runs quick. “I really feel that focus helped make the transition to collegiate training pretty much seamless for me”. Nick also feels rewarded by the consistency that collegiate athletics offers both on and off the track. Sleep and nutrition are an important, often overlooked, part of a runner’s success, and at college Nick feels he has improved both.
His work has paid off. Running currently at about 70-75 miles a week Nick is in fantastic shape. He showed off for the Penn State crowd running 8:20 for 3000m this past weekend, a huge PR and top time nationally. Off a 4:34 first mile, Scarpello held on strong with a pack of surging Albany runners, picking off a few en route to the finish. This is a great sign of fitness for Scarpello who is happy to feel healthy and confident once again on the track, a feeling one can argue he has not had in almost a year. What’s next for this Nittany Lion stand out? Nick is hoping to run fast in the mile, where most of his indoor training has been geared thus far. Outdoors look for him in the steeple chase and the 5000m. Although we may not know how fast Nick will run this season we can say one thing for certain: Nick is not flying under the radar anymore.