WOMEN'S CROSS-COUNTRY RES AT LAFAYETTE: W.X-C finishes 2nd at Lafayette

Going into the Penn women's cross country meet Saturday, Quaker assistant coach Tony Tenisci and junior runner Jane Kim had drastically opposing views on the Quakers' chances. Kim's words were "We're going to kick some booty," while Tenisci said, "It's going to be a really tough meet." Coming out of the meet, it seems nothing has changed. At Lafayette on Saturday, the Quakers (51 points) finished a close second to Delaware (49 points). Tenisci and Kim saw the results quite differently. "Delaware really rose," Tenisci said. "It was just one of those races, it could have gone either way. There should be no finger pointing. The kids just did a nice job of running." "It was kind of an upsetting meet, we didn't run as well as we should have," Kim said. "We should have won. As a team we lost focus. Some of the members lost their focus and didn't run up to their potential." Unfortunately, the team had to run without one of its top runners, junior Bridget Ward, who had a prior commitment. However, the team was able to improve on last year's times. Junior Maggie Morrow finished fourth overall in 18 minutes and 55 seconds. Kim placed eighth in 19:10, but was personally displeased with her effort. "For one, I didn't run a good race," Kim said. "Honestly, I wasn't focused coming into the meet." Sophomore Mary Conway placed 11th with a time of 19:15. This was a pleasant surprise to the coaching staff, who had been waiting for her to emerge. "Mary Conway ran a wonderful race," Tenisci said. "It's a real breakthrough for Mary and I think she should be highlighted. To be third in that group is commendable. She had a really tough race last week. This week she paid attention to [the coaches'] corrections and she did a really great job." Junior Jenee Anzelone finished fourth in 19:20. Following her was Junior Caitlin Riley, who ran the 3.1-mile race in 19:29. Riley had been hampered with a leg injury and was not originally scheduled to run. "We gave [Caitlin] the green light and she ran a beautiful race," Tenisci said. "Considering it was the second race of the year for her she did a really nice job. We are very pleased with Caitlin coming back. All along, we've been using a lot of precaution with her and she did a really nice job." The course at Lafayette was the hardest one the Quakers had faced so far. The first mile is completely downhill, but from then on the grass-covered course is entirely uphill, featuring rolling hills and deceiving terrain. The NCAA cross-country championships will be held there in November. "The course is probably one of the hardest we face," Tenisci said. "It's a very difficult cross-country course. It can really knock the socks off of you. It's very deceptive." The Quakers' 51 points at the meet were just two points off the lead. Moravian was close behind with 56. No other school was a real threat. The host Leopards finished a distant fifth. Penn must now set its sights on the Paul Short Invitationals this weekend. "We should get it together for next weekend, " Kim said. "The main thing is we need to run together as a pack and intimidate the other team. It'll help our confidence too."

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