Track teams headed opposite directions

Women hope to rebound at West Point The slumping Penn women's track team heads to West Point for the Army Invitational Sunday trying to recover from last week's disappointing performance at the Princeton Relays. "They're entitled to one bad performance, and they had it at Princeton," said assistant coach Tony Tenisci. The recovery needs to be quick. The Princeton duals are rapidly approaching. "We're starting to focus with Princeton a week away," said Tenisci. Immediate improvement is also necessary because there are only four meets remaining before the Heptagonals, the final and most important meet of the season. "The more competitions we have, the more it's on our minds," said coach Betty Costanza. The athletes are seeded in this competition based on their highest score at any meet during the season. Costanza believes it is especially important to improve at West Point because it is difficult to get good scores at the Princeton Duals. In order to defeat the Tigers, Penn uses its best athletes in many events. The result is greater difficulty for the Quakers in achieving their best times at each event. Senior co-captain Nicole Maloy believes the team can do much better at West Point. "Everyone just has to realize that we're going to have to come together as a team in order to be successful as a team," she said. She added it is important for the freshmen to have confidence in their team and in themselves, which a successful meet would help. One of the areas that most needs to improve, according to Tony Tenisci, is the runners in the middle- and long-distance races. "They just need to compete harder," said Tenisci. On a positive note for the Quakers, last year they also had a disappointing performance at the Princeton Relays. Despite that Penn "popped last year at this meet and did very well," Costanza said.