Track teams face Princeton and Yale

Women finally ready to take final exam The Penn women's track team has been huddled over workbooks and study guides lately. This weekend, however, they can finally be shoved back in the drawer. All the pages have been creased and coffee-stained?now it's time to take the exam. Tomorrow's meet at Princeton, against both the Tigers and Yale, is the Quakers' first chance to compete in a scored event this season, giving them an initial glance at where they stand as a team in relation to the rest of the conference. Recently they've been in limbo, competing frequently, but for the most part on an individual basis to test their strengths and weaknesses. It seems like the strengths are prevailing, as personal records have been broken, and regional and national qualifications have been made. "Finally we're getting to see our competition for Heps," senior co-captain Karyn Smith said. "We've always pulled together and we want to come out on top." Tomorrow also constitutes Penn's first road meet during the outdoor season, but since none of the Quakers' indoor meets was at home, it should do little to shake them. "We're really used to it," freshman Daria Smith said. "It won't make much difference." And in travelling to New Jersey, they will also meet up with the Eli. But the Tigers are the Quakers' main concern. Like all heated Penn-Princeton showdowns, the outcome is important to league standings, confidence building and simple bragging rights. A win is not only essential to getting the season started off positively, but to finish it off well. Tomorrow's meet, and the one against Cornell the following weekend, are the only chances the Quakers have to prove themselves before Heptagonals and regionals, the culminating and most important races of the season. "We want to make each race a good one. It's a quick season," Daria Smith said. "We want to run very well and show them what Penn track is all about." And what is it all about? Well, it's the culminating talent and spirit of a nationally qualified senior long jumper in Karyn Smith, Nicole Maloy, a record-holding junior high jumper, an amazing sophomore sprinter and an unbelievably fast freshman hurdler. And this is only a representation of a list that runs 40 long. "I'm a senior and I don't think I've ever been on a more talented team," Karyn Smith said. But the test will be if this talent will show against an equally stacked and ambitious Princeton squad. The Quakers have proven themselves once already, defeating the Tigers in a dual meet earlier in the indoor season, and hope for equalled success.