Men's X-C finishes a strong 10th

What are whipped cream and a cherry without the ice cream? Penn men's cross-country runners junior Alvarez Symonette and sophomores Jack McMullan and Kurt Sprowls proved that they could hold up the toppings at Lehigh's Paul Short Invitational last Saturday. The Quakers finished a spectacular 10th behind eight nationally-ranked teams. Conquering the rest of the 31-team field, Penn defeated two nationally-ranked teams as well as Princeton and St. Joseph's, two squads which beat Penn in earlier meets this year. "The middle ran great, they couldn't do much better," Quaker assistant coach John Briner said. "Jack McMullan, Alvarez Symonette and Kurt Sprowls ran a great race, no doubt about it." McMullan finished in 32 minutes 22 seconds for the 6.2-mile course, on the tails of Penn's top finishers – junior co-captains Joe Hall (32:11) and Terry McLean (32:18). Symonette (32:30) and Sprowls (32:57) were not far behind. The key difference between Saturday and earlier meets was the team's execution of strategy. Running as teammates in a pack for the first miles gave the Quakers the edge they needed. "I tried to hang back and run with the team," Symonette said. "We really ran great together. We ran together fast and with confidence. If we keep running this way, we are going to be strong for the rest of the season. It was incredible." The coaching staff was pleased with the efforts of its three, four and five men – although their success did not come as a surprise. "We have our game plan," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "It's going like we thought, I hope that we can take that through Heps." "I've known it all season," Briner said. "I've just been waiting for it to happen. We are very pleased. We shocked a lot of teams – we held our own." For the past weeks, Penn has been making the transition between strength training and recovery-speed workouts. In preparation for the invitational the team traveled to the Lehigh course for a workout the previous weekend which, according to Symonette, made a big difference in the team's performance. "I've always run well at Lehigh," Symonette said. "You almost can't run badly on it. We're disappointed that we can't run IC4A's there. It's like God cut out this perfect cross-country course and put it down at Lehigh." Penn had hoped to place stars Hall and McLean in the top 20 this weekend, but their 47th- and 52nd-place finishes reflected a week plagued by the flu and demanding workouts. Neither one was feeling strong before the race. With the strong finishes of the rest of the squad, Penn had the No. 10 spot clinched regardless. "I really can't complain, I don't worry about Joe and Terry," Powell said. "They are tough, they just weren't as solid as we expected up front." The coaches plan to begin training Hall and McLean separately from the rest of the team. A more intense workout focusing on speed is planned for the captains in order to prepare them for competition in the higher echelons at the Heptagonals and the IC4A's at the end of October. "The intensity is going to be sharper, because of the caliber of runners [Hall and McLean] are," Briner said. "We're going to be ready to go come Heps." The Quakers are at a turning point. Although earlier in the season Powell and McLean had expressed concern that the Quakers were not running as a team, Penn will bring the confidence of its success this weekend to the final important meets of the season. "[They] told us what we weren't telling ourselves, we all knew,"Alvarez said. "We are definitely competitors now." This sundae is looking good.