Ailing McLean leads Men's X-Country on Friday

If running five miles in under 26 minutes was the farthest thing from your mind the last time your best friends were Tylenol, Puffs Plus and Stouffer's Chicken Soup – Terry McLean just might impress you. Last Friday at New York's Van Cortlandt Park, the Quaker junior co-captain led the Penn men's cross country team to a third-place finish behind Army and Princeton despite being sick – which nearly kept him from running altogether. His initial strategy was to help the team by pacing and encouraging the Quaker runners behind fellow co-captain Joe Hall, but after three miles things changed drastically. McLean moved up from 13th place to clinch 4th place in 25 minutes, 40 seconds. "I was not going in with the intent to race," McLean said. "I decided to help out our number three, four and five [runners] on the team. I wasn't really racing. At the three-mile mark I felt good and I started passing people." As far as the rest of the Quaker squad was concerned, things did not go as planned. Penn's top finishers behind McLean were sophomores Joe Hall (25:59) and Alvarez Symonette (26:40), freshman standout Matt Wilkinson (27:05) and junior Brett Albert (27:12). "As a team we did terrible," McLean said. "I was trying to get the guys into the race. They were not concentrating on racing or confident in themselves. They don't understand that in order to race a good race they have to go out faster. You just can't win that way." The team's inability to follow the strategy outlined by coach Charlie Powell and assistant coach John Briner led to a breakdown in the team's strength of position. The Penn runners were advised to stay together, match up with runners of similar ability from other squads and follow the pace of McLean and Hall for the first three miles. "Sure [other Penn runners] are passing people in the middle of the race, just the wrong people," McLean said. "The people they should be running with – the people that are [of] the same ability – are already too far ahead when they start to make their moves." Princeton's top runners started the race at a quicker pace and held it for the first three miles. When the Tigers began to tire, Penn took advantage, but according to Briner and McLean, the Quakers were still unable to capitalize as much as they should have. "At least [Princeton] gave it a good shot," McLean said. "Their guys were giving it everything they had and finishing dead tired. Our guys were looking strong as they finished – behind them. The strategy is right, the runners are the ones that have to change. "Briner was upset with our performance. The guys were not following his instructions, they are just running, not racing. He was a long-distance runner and knows how it is easier said than done." Importantly, this race was a chance for the Quakers to gain experience for the upcoming Paul Short Invitational on October 9 and the Heptagonals – which are held on the same course in November. The coaching staff does not plan to make any major changes for the upcoming races, but the team will begin the transition between running to build strength and running to build speed.