UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State senior runner Chris McGinness (Abington HS/Roslyn, PA) has been named to the 2000 All-Big Ten first team for his fifth-place finish (24:23) at the Big Ten Championships Sunday afternoon at the Yahara Hills Golf Course on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. McGinness becomes the first Lion runner since Che' Arosemena to earn a spot on the conference's first team and the fifth Penn State runner to garner the award in the Lions' 10 year history in the Big Ten.

"Chris has been coming on strong since the end of last season and went through a hard work ethic over the summer to prepare for this season," Lion head coach Harry Groves said of McGinness, who was the PIAA cross country champion in 1995. "He's deserved everything he's gotten this fall."

Fellow Nittany Lion runner James Carney (South Park, PA) was named to the conference's second team with his 12th place finish (24:43). It was Carney's first season running for Penn State after transfering from NCAA Division II Millersville University where he was a four-time all-American -- once in cross country, once in indoor track and field (5k) and twice in outdoor track and field (5k and 10k).

"James is just like Chris in that he has performed gradually better in each race this season and I'm proud of the jump he has made from division one to division two," Groves said of Carney, an academic all-American at Millersville and a graduate student in Businees Administration.

Penn State is ranked 17th in the latest United States Coaches' Association Top 25 Poll, while they're ranked third in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Top 10 Poll. Penn State will host the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at the Penn State Blue/White Golf Course on Saturday, November 11, 2000.