W. Track struggles in tune-up before Princeton Duals

The Penn women's track team went into Sunday's Princeton Relays hoping to send the Tigers a message. The Princeton Duals between just Penn and Princeton are less than two weeks away, so Penn wanted to show just how strong a team it is. The message was not very forceful. With approximately 10 schools competing, a Penn athlete placed among the top four in only four of the 15 events. Freshman Tiffany Archer and senior co-captain Nicole Maloy gave their usual stellar performances, finishing second and third in the high jump with leaps of 5-feet-6-inches. The top mark was 5-8, the same height that Maloy and Archer successfully jumped in last week's Yale Invitational. Jane Kim once again finished near the top of the mile run, finishing third in five minutes, 11 seconds. The other highlight was the team's second-place finish in the shuttle run behind Pittsburgh. Outside of those events, the results were generally dismal. Coach Betty Costanza was frustrated with the performance of the middle and distance runners. "I'm disappointed with the middle distance people," said Costanza. "They're not running the way they're capable of. They're not running competitively, only enough to get by." The Quakers finished sixth in the Distance Medley Relay and fourth in the 3,200-meter relay. They did not place in the top six in the 1,600 relay. Senior co-captain Maggie Morrow, however, impressed Costanza with her fifth-place finish in the Jennings 3,000 run. She had not run competitively since November. Costanza is doubtful she can help the runners improve their times. "They're seasoned athletes. They have to decide whether they want to be competitive," said Costanza. "I can't make somebody hungry to win, or run a good time." Based on their recent performance, Costanza believes Princeton will "knock our socks off in distance." Fortunately for Penn's hopes at the upcoming Princeton's Duals, Princeton did not perform significantly better. In fact, in the nine events where one of the universities placed in the top six, Penn finished ahead of Princeton in five of them. But in the relay events, which are scored most highly in a dual meet, Princeton defeated the Quakers. Penn Assistant coach Crickett Batz Shaklee was not concerned with the results, citing last year's similarly lackluster performance at the Princeton Relays. Penn then went on to defeat Princeton in the duals. "This has no bearing on our season, in terms of where we will be at for the [Heptagonal Championships]," said Shaklee. Although she believes Kim could have done better, she is satisfied the freshmen are continuing to gain experience.