Delaware Invite preps W. Track for Princeton

Although the Penn women's track team was not as excited about the results of its meets this weekend as with its previous victory at Cornell, the Invitationals at Delaware and Army were by no means unsuccessful for the Quakers. No team scores were kept at either competition. They were primarily meets where individuals could evaluate their progress at this point in the season. The results will help to indicate to Penn how it will fare against Princeton in its upcoming scored dual meet on February 1. "We are just trying to give everyone an equal opportunity to compete and to see where we are," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said prior to this weekend. "Princeton is really the big focus." Twelve distance runners traveled to Newark, Del. on Friday to participate in the Delaware Invitational. In addition to the Quakers and the Blue Hens, Bucknell, Georgetown and West Chester were also in attendance. Although there were no first-place finishes by Penn, several athletes did finish in the top three places in their respective events. In the 3,200-meter relay, the Quakers team of freshman Stephanie Bell, sophomore Rita Garber, senior Lori Roth and freshman Dana Cantanese finished behind Delaware to take second. In the 800-meter run, sophomore Susan Kirn took third, as did Garber in the one-mile run. The 1,600-meter relay team of freshman Marie Thoma, freshman Stephanie Bush, Kirn and junior Kristin Gregory also finished third. The remainder of Penn's team traveled to West Point, N.Y., on Saturday to compete in the Army Invitational, which also included squads from Lehigh, Lafayette and Massachusetts. "I don't think anyone felt it was a bad meet, but some things could have gone better," sophomore Nuru Hunter said. For example, because many of the sprinters had competed in the Mr. and Ms. Penn Bodybuilding Contest on Wednesday, their muscles were somewhat sore, meaning they were not able to compete to their full potential. However, there were several first-place finishes by the Quakers in this meet. Junior Dawn McGee won both the 55-meter dash and the 55-meter hurdle competition, while junior Jen Roy placed first in the 400-meter dash. Penn's 1,600-meter relay also took first, finishing ahead of UMass by a little over one second. In the high jump, junior Tiffany Archer took first place, while Aqiyla Muhammed finished on top in the long jump event. Sophomore Lisa El won the triple jump. The Quakers hope that the positive results from this weekend will be carried with them to Princeton next weekend.

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