SELINSGROVE, PA – Susquehanna University head cross country and women’s track and field coach Craig Penney has announced his resignation, effective immediately, to become assistant director of program development in the department of Conferences and Institutes at Penn State University.

Assistant coach Marty Owens has been named head men’s and women’s cross country coach and will serve as interim women’s track and field coach for the remainder of the 2003 season.

Penney, in his fourth season at Susquehanna after coaching at Hanover, Methodist, Wooster and Dickinson from 1980-1999, led the Crusader women’s track squad to a second-place finish at the Middle Atlantic Conference Indoor Championships last month.

Last fall, he coached the men’s cross country team to fifth place and the women to sixth at the MAC championships. Junior Ryan Gleason qualified for the NCAA men’s championship for the second straight year, giving Penney a total of 10 national qualifiers during his career.

Owens is in his first season at Susquehanna after serving as assistant track and cross country coach and later head indoor coach at Westfield (Mass.) High School from April 2001 to June 2002.

He is a member of the Fleet Feet and Power Bar Team Elite racing teams and has competed in a number of marathons and other road races around the country, as well as the famed Ironman Triathlon World Championship in both 1995 and 1997.

In 2002, Owens finished fourth in the Washington D.C. Marathon, while finishing in the top 10 in the Vermont City Marathon in both 2000 and 2001. In 1998, Owens took second at the Atlantic City Marathon and in 1999 he was 13th in the Las Vegas International Marathon.

Owens has also competed in half-marathons, winning the Las Vegas Track Club Half-Marathon in both 1998 and 1999 while finishing fourth at the New Bedford Half-Marathon in 2000. In 1999, Owens was named the Southern Nevada Male Runner of the Year. His personal record in the half-marathon is 1:08.45 while his best marathon time is 2:27.32.

He is a 1987 graduate of Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, New Jersey and a 1991 graduate of Ursinus College with a bachelor of science degree in health, physical education and recreation. Currently, Owens is pursuing his master of science degree in exercise physiology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

In addition to coaching and running, Owens is employed as a substitute teacher in the Lewisburg Area School District. He resides in Lewisburg.