Personal bests are not enough for W. X-Country

Despite having all 15 participating runners post personal bests, the Penn women's cross country team placed fourth out of five teams in last Friday's Princeton Invitational meet. The Quakers finished with 84 points, 30 points behind victorious Princeton and ahead of only Columbia. Co-captain Mary Conway, who missed almost all of last season because of injuries, led the Quakers by posting a time of 18 minutes, 36 seconds to place fourth. Christine Stavalone (13th), Melanie Gesker (19th), Kirsten Gregory (22nd) and Lori Roth (26th) also put points on the board for Penn. "We're an extremely talented team," Conway said. "We just need to close the gap a little. Towards the end of the season I think we will be very competitive." The absence of Michelle Belsley, the team's top runner, contributed somewhat to Penn's mediocre showing. Belsley, who ran the best time for the Quakers in the Fordham Invitational one week ago, sat out the race with knots in her calves. "It wasn't worth it for us to take the chance because we didn't want to jeopardize the rest of her season," assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "But if she had ran, she probably could have finished second or third, and that would have changed the outcome of the race entirely. "Mary [Conway] had a huge personal record though, and it was exciting to see everybody run so well. Everybody came out of it with a good feeling, but we're still learning as a team." Part of the learning process for the Quakers will involve learning to better gauge the caliber of their opponents. "The season has just begun, so we are pretty much going into the meets blind as far as the competition is concerned," Gesker said. "We'll be working a lot on race strategy this week." The next meet for the Penn women is the Rutgers Invitational, which will take place Saturday. The course is flat and fast, and Belsley's return to the team will hopefully spark the Red and the Blue as they enter the heart of their schedule.