W. X-Country takes 16th at Invit.

Meeting one's expectations can sometimes be positive and sometimes be less than positive. For the Penn women's cross-country team it was both on Saturday as the Quakers finished 16th out of 32 teams in the 3.1 mile course at the 20th annual Paul Short Invitational. "We finished about where we expected," junior Bridget Ward said. "[Penn coach Betty Costanza] thought that we would come in 16th or 17th and we came in 16th?It was a very satisfactory meet." While Ward had a matter-of-fact reaction to the Quakers' showing, Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci was more enthusiastic. "No, no. We didn't expect this to happen," Tenisci said. "We did great. We knocked the socks off of them. It was a really great showing. I was very pleased." But some of his runners were expecting more. "We could have run better," junior Jane Kim said. "I figured we should have been in the top 10. I don't know what was wrong. I should have been farther up there. The coaches were really pissed." "I wish we could have done a little better," sophomore Mary Conway said. "But I was happy with how our team preformed." As with Penn's meeting its expectations, the standings of other squads relative to Penn's finish was also neither wholly positive nor altogether negative. The Quakers avenged their previous loss to Delaware and triumphed over archrival Princeton. However, they finished behind St. Joseph's and Navy, two teams who they thought they had a legitimate shot at beating. "I think that we were pleased that we avenged ourselves against Delaware and we beat Princeton," Ward said. "It was great to beat Delaware," Tenisci said. "They thought they were on top of the world because they beat Penn [before]." "We definitely should have beaten St. Joe's," Kim said. Individually, juniors Maggie Morrow and Bridget Ward stood out and finished 59th and 62nd respectively. They ran together ahead of the rest of the team. "I give a lot of credit to Maggie and Bridget," Kim said. "They ran really well. If [junior] Jenee [Anzelone] and I were up there with Maggie and Bridget, we would have had a good showing. I just give a lot of credit to Mags and Bridget for having the heart to run well." Kim, who usually is able to run with Ward and Morrow, finished a distant 100th and was displeased with her effort. Anzelone and sophomore Mary Conway placed 106th and 125th. Junior Caitlin Riley probably was the biggest disappointment. She ran last out of the seven Penn runners at 162. "I think we disappointed [Ward and Morrow] and that hurts us the most," Kim said. "Jenee and I totally want to be up there and we should be. We should be beating them actually. Caitlin was a surprise, she should have been up there with them. Jenee, Caitlin, and I got ripped by the coaches." "I let the team down," Conway said. "I could have done better. I let the pack of our team go and I ran alone. I was a little disappointed at that. It was the heat and the big race. I was a little thrown off by how big the race was. I just lost focus and concentrated not enough on the team and too much on the size of the race." Conway's disappointment illustrates the different perspectives on this team. The Quakers feel they had the talent to place higher at the Paul Short Invitational. This kind of motivation to always improve can only help Penn as it heads toward Heps.