W. X-Country finishes 7th

BETHLEHEM -- Although Lehigh is not actually located in Quakertown, the Penn women's cross country team temporarily transformed the sleepy rural town into "Quaker Town" Saturday. The team, competing in the 21st running of the Paul Short Invitational, put up its best performance of the year, taking seventh place out of 24 teams. The Paul Short was by far the toughest tournament the Quakers have competed in all season. It was more than the grueling, hilly course that made the meet so difficult. The prestigious race drew one of the year's deepest fields, including many of the top women's teams in the Northeast -- Providence, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Sophomore Marie McMahon led the Providence attack, which captured first place two weeks after winning the Boston College Invitational. McMahon was the meet's top runner, completing the five-kilometer course in a blistering 17 minutes, 8 seconds. Providence took first, second, fifth, seventh and 11th places overall, despite the absence of star runner Amy Rudolph. The Friars accumulated 26 points, 119 better than second-place UMass. Going into the meet, Penn coach Betty Costanza expressed concern over her Quakers' slow individual times. She felt the team's top runners had to start breaking the 19-minute mark to be competitive in the bigger meets. Not only did senior Maggie Morrow break 19 minutes, she did it by more than 30 seconds, finishing in 18:29.6, good for 18th place overall. Morrow was only one of three Quakers to break 19 minutes. Senior Jenee Anzelone gave her best effort of the year, coming in at 18:36.5 (24th place). Sophomore Michelle Belsley crossed the finish line in 18:44.8 (30th), despite getting her foot run over by a car earlier in the week. The Red and Blue has shown remarkable progress since the beginning of the season. In their first meet at Fordham, the Quakers took a disappointing second place to a weaker James Madison squad. On Saturday, Penn got revenge, finishing three spots ahead of the Dukes. One week after Fordham, Penn traveled to Princeton, where the Quakers were destroyed by the Tanya Baker-led Tigers. But at the Paul Short, Penn finished only five points behind Princeton, as Morrow neutralized Baker's 15th place with her own fantastic finish. "I think each meet we're getting a step up," Belsley said. While other teams may be tiring, the Quakers seem to be catching their second wind. The rigorous seven-day-a-week training program is paying big dividends. "I think we're confident," Morrow said. "I think we're getting in shape. I think we're starting to fall into form. A lot of hard work is starting to pay off. Rather than tire us, it's starting to strengthen us. "We've been helping each other in the races, calling people to get up [with the pack]. It's easier to gear up with a teammate because you run with them all the time, rather than running against someone." The Quakers, with back-to-back seventh-place finishes at highly competitive meets, the Boston College Invitational and the Paul Short, are putting themselves in position to challenge for the Ivy League title and a year's worth of bragging rights.