Lack of depth does in W. Track

You wouldn't classify it as a failure or a catastrophe, but you may very well call it disappointing and anticlimactic. After a season of invitationals in preparation for Saturday's meet against Princeton and Yale, the first scored event of the season, the Penn women's track team stumbled a bit, finishing seven points behind the Tigers' first-place total. Although it is commonly known as a sport in which tenths of a second are the deciding factor, this meet's final outcome was based on tenths of inches. While the Quaker runners held their own against a nationally competitive squad, Penn's field competition wasn't able to pick up the slack. And the little slack offered it was snatched by Yale, which scurried around scraping up points where Penn needed it most. With a sweep of many of the sprinting events, Penn looked strong at the outset. The Quakers took the 100- and 200-meter dashes as well as the 4x100 relay by considerable margins. And although Princeton tallied many of its points on the distance events, Penn held on to keep those races close. Junior Jenee Anzelone ran 2 minutes, 13 seconds in the 800 while classmate and co-captain Maggie Morrow ran a 10:09 in the 3,000, both solid times. "I knew it was going to be a close meet," Penn coach Betty Costanza said. "Overall we didn't run poorly, but we needed to sweep those events we're strong in to balance those that we're not." And that's exactly what didn't happen. Although senior co-captain Karyn Smith put in triple- and long-jump victories, which have become givens recently, the second and third places for Penn couldn't follow. And while Penn took the javelin first place, junior Nicole Maloy had some trouble in the high jump. "We really went down in our jumping events. We just couldn't seem to get it together in some places," Costanza said. "It would have changed the meet if we went 1, 2, 3 in the long jump. And Nicole had trouble planting in the high jump?the surfaces were just slippery for everyone." The Quakers' performance overall was strong though, and if only the Elis had stayed home, tallies may have swung in Penn's favor. Yale's whopping 26 points, some 50 behind the rest of the field, did little for the Elis' chances, and consequently held the Quakers back in the process. "Their only points were the ones we definitely needed," Anzelone said. The score shows a defeat, whether it be due to poor conditions or close races. But standout performances for the Quakers did emerge from the unexpected outcome. Going up against a Princeton distance squad that perennially sends competition to Nationals, the Quakers put in a strong showing. "A lot of our team's distance runners got personal records," junior Caitlyn Riley said. "We held our own against them." And in the 100 hurdles, freshman Daria Smith, although not physically at 100 percent, sprinted for a time good enough for the victory. "My performance was good enough to win," she said. "It was all right compared to what I usually do, but hopefully I'll get a better time next weekend." Better times, longer distances and farther and higher jumps are a must when Penn faces Cornell next weekend in its last conference meet before the Penn Relays and Heptagonals. "We're a little behind in our season goals in some events," Costanza said. "We beat Princeton last year and we beat them in indoors this year. I just hope we can rise and go into Cornell a little more pumped." All the talent in the world, and the team displays a great deal of it, won't get you anywhere without being "pumped." That is the essence of college sports, and that is the key to an Ivy victory, and subsequently, a divisional or regional title. All are still within reach at this stage.