Penelope Greene Caps Collegiate Career at SUNY Geneseo With Pair of National Titles

What a way to go out.

Penelope Greene, the 2021 Pierson High School graduate, wrapped up her collegiate career at SUNY Geneseo in style last week with not one, but two national titles at the NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the SPIRE Institute’s Outdoor Track and Field facility in Geneva, Ohio. After winning the 10,000-meter race in 33:46.70, which broke a 43-year-old meet record, Greene won the 5,000-meter race in a personal best 16:01.55.

With the two victories, Greene earned two additional First-Team All-American honors, giving her nine overall throughout her four years at Geneseo, which ties Madison Mulder of Smithtown West High School with the program high.

“I’m mostly just grateful to go out there in my last two collegiate races as an athlete running for Geneseo and be able to perform at that level,” Greene said. “It means the world.”

Greene said she had no idea she broke the meet record in the 10K until well after the meet had finished on the first day of competition, Thursday, May 22. The previous record of 33:50.32 was set by Debra Thometz of the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) in 1983.

“There was only one way the 10K could go, and it went how I expected it to go,” Greene said. “I think [the meet record] is a little extra fun thing I get to say I have. I didn’t go into that race with much of a plan, and I definitely didn’t try and break the meet record. I had no idea what that was going into it.”

Greene’s emergence in the 10K is rather sudden, being that she only started running it last year.

“Coach said to just run the one pace, so I did,” she said. “I held on to it. There was a girl from Lewis and Clark [Riley Buese], she and I had a pretty sizable gap, but early on we broke away. And when we started to lap people, then it turned into a bigger gap in the field.”

SUNY Geneseo women’s track and field head coach Christopher Popovici said he knew Greene had that kind of performance in her after posting a 33:42 10K in early April.

“She ran the race lapping the entire field of 50 women and never set foot in lane one near the final two miles,” he said of Greene’s championship race. “And yet, it seemed easy.

“Penelope found consistency and trust within her training and coaches and teammates,” Popovici added. “Those two things allowed her to grow season by season. Past success is the best confidence boost there is and this outdoor season was the culmination of those past successes. She has an unwavering self belief in her races.”

Two days later, on Saturday, Greene was back on the final day of competition to race the 5K, which she said had a much more competitive field and was going to take a little more strategy to win.

“I was telling myself the whole day, respond to anything. Don’t think you can’t with any of those girls,” she said.

When Greene pulled away from the lead pack and led much of the race, it was a bit of a surprise, she said. But Popovici said Greene put everyone on notice that she was ready for the NCAA Championships when she finished the 1,500-meter race at Regionals in 4:22.23. That was a second-best time in Division III this year and in school history. She had entered this season having never broken 4:30.

“It was inspiring to see her assume control from the first lap in both the 10K and the 5K,” Popvici said. “She was nervous but she didn’t hesitate to follow Coach [Dan] Moore’s plan. It was a dare to the field to run such a fast pace and she executed brilliantly.”

Popvici confirmed that the 5K certainly had more challengers for Greene. It was “a melting pot of every distance runner,” he said.

“She took the field out through the first kilometer on a 5:04 mile pace. Then settled in on a blistering pace that broke the race open very quickly.”

Having officially graduated from Geneseo on May 17, Greene got to truly reflect on her time there now, following all of her success.

“I definitely didn’t expect any of this really,” she said. “I just expected to continue running at Geneseo. I was pretty dead set my senior year [at Pierson] that I wanted to run in college, but I hadn’t committed to anywhere. Middle of my senior year, I got a recruitment letter from Dan Moore and remember thinking this is perfect.

“I found myself in a place that I love and on a team that I cherish with everything,” Greene continued. “I’ve met some of my best friends here, and I will always have a little community to come back to up here and I’ll always have the team. It’s been really special that I got to make something out of it and stamp my name down on the program.”

With a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a minor in communications, Greene is looking to enter the editing and publishing field. But in the meantime, she’s moving back home to Sag Harbor. Her former high school cross country head coach Jim Kinnier always said he could see Greene running in the Olympics in the future, and with the accomplishments she has at the collegiate level, she could make a bid to qualify in an event.

Greene said she hasn’t given the Olympics much thought, but said she’s been looking to get into marathons. So if there was one event she’d possibly think about going after for the Olympics, it’s that. But that’s something she’ll wait to decide down the road.

For now, Greene said she wants to get back to running in local road races, such as the Shelter Island 10K and Jordan’s Run. Her summer training schedule typically wouldn’t allow her to run in those races, but now that she’s done with school, she can give those all a go.

So fellow local runners have officially been put on notice — Greene is back.