Maloy and Archer pace W. Track

Senior co-captain Nicole Maloy and freshman Tiffany Archer became the first two members of the women's track team to qualify for the East Coast Athletice Conference championships thanks to their performances at the Navy Invitational this past weekend. Maloy and Archer tied for first place in the high jump with leaps of 5 feet, 6 inches. The next highest jump, with 14 teams competing, was 5-2. Maloy said her jump was "satisfying" and added she had been able to jump that high fairly regularly during practice. Archer's success came as no surprise to Maloy, either. "I knew she was going to be really good before she got here," said Maloy. "She was jumping 5-8 in high school, and that's rare." Archer attributed her victory to her hard work at practice. She is hoping to jump 5-9 at the ECAC championships held in Syracuse March 4-5. The performance of the team as a whole was not as spectacular -- the Quakers tied for seventh place with Morgan State. According to Penn coach Betty Costanza, the result of the meet is not that significant. The main purpose of the tournament is to "get everybody to see where they are in their training," Costanza said. Maloy agreed. "It's a matter of seeing where you stand against the competition," she said. Of the 10 events besides the high jump, Penn athletes finished in the top five in only three of them. Daria Smith, after not practicing for over two weeks due to an injury, finished third in the hurdles. Cheryl Edwards and Erin Soley finished third and fifth in the 20-pound weight throw, respectively. Monica McCullough jumped 18-0 in the long jump to earn a second-place finish. In the team events, Penn did not fare much better. The Quakers finished 11th out of 12 teams in the 4x400 relay, and fourth of seven teams in the 4x800 relay. Some Quakers participated in the Lafayette College Invitational, which was also held over the weekend. Costanza sent athletes there who needed to compete in more than one event. It included about half as many teams as were in the Navy Invitational. Even with the smaller number of competitors, freshman Satsuki Mitchell, who finished second in the high jump, was the only Penn athlete to finish in the top two in any of the 13 events. The lack of overall success, according to Costanza, occurred partly because many of the more experienced runners did not compete. The cross country season has just ended, so many athletes needed a break before the indoor track season. Assistant coach Cricket Batz Shaklee cited the lack of an indoor track on which to practice as another reason. "We won't be as fast as other teams at this time of year because we don't have an indoor facility," she said. Freshman Christine Stavalone, who ran on an indoor track for the first time at the tournament, agreed. "It was really weird for me," said Stavalone. "The curves were much tighter and it was harder to breathe." Both Costanza and Shaklee expect the performances to improve as the runners from the cross country team return and the athletes become accustomed to the indoor track.