W.X.-Country sends J.V.

What Penn women's cross country coach Betty Costanza did by sending the J.V. squad to compete in Saturday's Lafayette Invitational was like, well, Temple football coach Ron Dickerson scheduling his Owls against the mighty Nittany Lions of Penn State. That's not to say the other teams competing in the meet -- Lafayette, Millersville, SUNY-Binghamton, Columbia, Delaware, West Chester, Iona and Hofstra -- are such powers in the world of collegiate distance running. After all, the winning time was a rather pathetic 18 minutes, 58 seconds. But the J.V. squad, made up mostly of freshmen, lacks the experience and talent of its varsity counterpart. Nobody bothered to tell the Quakers they were supposed to finish a distant last. They ended up a respectable seventh out of the nine teams -- remarkable considering they were competing against the other schools' top runners. Lafayette ended up taking first place in their own meet for the first time in the event's four-year history. Millersville, Binghamton and Columbia followed. Just to see where Penn's varsity squad may have finished consider this: Columbia finished a strong fourth in the nine-team field at Lafayette. But at the meet at Princeton two weeks ago, the Quakers crushed the Lions by 69 points. Penn's top runner Saturday was freshman Sarah Leshner. Despite having not competed in more than two weeks, Leshner put up a solid 20:29, more than a 16-second improvement over her last race at Princeton. Costanza decided to give the varsity runners their first day off this season after a strong performance last weekend at the Boston College Invitational. "We ran really well and it was a long trip," Costanza said, explaining her unorthodox decision. The strong performance of the young runners gives Penn hope for the future. The Quakers already have three freshman and two sophomores on varsity. Costanza firmly believes varsity freshmen Kirsten Gregory, Christine Stavalone and Kristen Duyck can step up into the top nine for Penn by the end of this season. Sophomore Michelle Belsley is already one of the top three Quaker runners. If one or more of the J.V. runners can continue to improve, Penn may have the foundation for a strong team in the future.