Track teams try to overcome mounting obstacles

Women attempt to deal with Mother Nature again When one thinks of nagging -- recurring problems, athlete's foot and Buffalo Bills' Super Bowl appearances come to mind. If you ask the Penn women's track team, nasty weather would be the Quakers' immediate response. For the third time in four weeks, the wrath of Mother Nature has ravished Penn. Last Saturday's victory over Princeton was the culmination of a rare week, that consisted of dry conditions and sufficient practice. When Penn finally thought it was out of the woods and ready for Heptagonals in two weeks, Arctic storm number two hit the campus. "I'm just numb from it," assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "I'm tired of it. I'm just worn out from looking at it." This second storm is very untimely for the reason that Heps is in two weeks. In a warm up for the meet, the Quakers travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to compete in the Cornell Relays tomorrow. Although Penn's ultimate goal is to improve upon last week's stellar performance, the Quakers have two objectives going into the meet. First, the relays will simply be used as a means of getting in more practice time. Second, Penn hopes to get good seed times for Heps. However, it is quite possible that seed times will improve tomorrow. The big reason is Cornell has an excellent overall facility. It's wide turns will allow for fast times, and the jumping facility is excellent as well, Tenisci said. It will also be a beneficial meet for the Quakers because they will be facing the Big Red, which they will see at Heps, and also because they will be competing against excellent teams from Waterloo and Western Ontario. "The Canadians have some very high quality athletes in their systems," Tenisci said. Penn should be fine at the meet because the Quakers are such a close team, as well as the fact they possess a tremendous amount of resiliency, Tenisci said. "It's a big family atmosphere with 25 new kids," Jamila Northington said before the Princeton Relays last month, referring to the fact that half of the team consists of freshmen. "It's one mother (senior co-captain Karyn Smith) and 25 little babies." After another week of limited practice, the Quakers are tougher than ever. Tomorrow, the Big Red won't just be facing a tough Ivy track team, they'll be facing a tough family.