SEASON REVIEW: W. X-Country does not reach goals

The Penn women's cross country team entered the 1994 season with dreams of an Ivy League title. Who could have blamed it? The team was returning five of its top runners from last year, including team MVP Maggie Morrow. Coach Betty Costanza brought in the strongest class of recruits in three years, including three freshmen who made the varsity squad from day one. Sophomore Michelle Belsley was entering the season healthy after an injury-plagued freshman year. But the Quakers started off slow with second-place finishes at Fordham and Princeton. Morrow and Ward looked solid in both meets, but Anzelone, Riley and Kim struggled. Picking up the slack was Belsley, who got back into top form faster than expected. The sophomore finished in the top five overall in both meets. Penn then had its first major meet, the Boston College Invitational. The Red and Blue looked sharp, finishing a strong seventh in the 20-team field. The varsity runners had two weeks to prepare for the Paul Short Invitational, where they ran against fifth-ranked Providence, as well as regional powers Massachusetts and Connecticut. Morrow, Anzelone and Belsley held their own in the all-star field, leading Penn to another seventh-place finish. After their impressive outings in the Boston College and Paul Short Invitationals, the Quakers entered the season's final stretch poised to challenge for the Ivy League crown. But the team stumbled at the Lehigh Invitational. With Belsley sidelined with an injury and Morrow forced to drop out mid-race, the Quakers lacked firepower and finished fourth out of five teams. The letdown at Lehigh carried over to the Heptagonal Championships. With the Ivy League title there for the taking, Penn had its worst meet of the year, finishing seventh. Despite the team's mediocre year, Morrow proved she is one of the Ivy's top distance runners. At the Paul Short, Morrow kept pace with some of the best runners in the Northeast, finishing 18th. Her time of 18 minutes, 29.6 seconds held up as the team's best of the year. After a poor meet at Princeton, Anzelone reestablished herself as a bona fide star. She crossed the finish line at the Paul Short in 18:36.5, six spots behind Morrow. She is now looking forward to the indoor and outdoor track seasons, in which she will be favored to win the Ivy championship in the 800 meters. While strong years were expected from Morrow and Anzelone, Michelle Belsley was a question mark entering the season. A middle-distance specialist, she was running in her first full season of cross country. But Belsley took charge when others faltered, compiling the second best average time on the team, behind Morrow. Her best race was also at Paul Short, where she came in 30th in 18:44.8. The surprise of the season was junior Melanie Gesker. By the season's end, Gesker was a fixture in the Penn top five. She gave the Quakers another threat to crack the 19-minute barrier, a feat she accomplished at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship (18:59). The difference between title contention and the team's seventh-place finish at Heps may have been the disappointing seasons of Jane Kim, Caitlin Riley and Bridget Ward. The three seniors were expected to run in the low 19-minute range, but instead struggled with consistency. Jane Kim showed flashes of dominance. At Boston College, she was Penn's top finisher in 19:13. She also looked strong at the Paul Short, where she ran a season-best 19:09.9. "Jane was the team's No. 1 runner her freshman year," Costanza said. But Kim also had some bad races, failing to finish under 19:40 at Princeton, Lehigh and the Heps. Riley ran well at Princeton (19:05.16), but she was not able to produce in the big meets. At Boston College, she barely cracked 20 minutes (19:53). At the Paul Short, she finished in 19:21.2. She had her worst meet of the year at Heps, coming in at 20:21. The biggest disappointment was Ward. Expected to share the No. 1 spot with Morrow, the senior failed to finish higher than fifth on the team after the Sept. 16 Princeton meet. She finished her collegiate career at Heps with a time of 21:10. That finish was the worst on the team, and placed her 69th out of the 77 runners. "Bridget never really got going," Costanza said. "She's not in tip-top shape." It was the season that could have been. The talent was there. The opportunities were there. But the execution was not. "Our big guns -- they did nothing," Costanza said after the Princeton race. She could have said the same thing about the season as a whole.