Cross Country teams both finish last at Heps

Michelle Belsley finishes ninth to qualify for ECACs In a disappointing finish to an up-and-down season, the women's cross country team finished eighth out of eight teams at Friday's Heptagonal Championships in New York. Powerhouse Dartmouth, led by all-American and first-place finisher Maribel Sanchez, dominated the meet with a team score of 23 points. Harvard finished second with 55 points, while Cornell placed third with 83 points. Penn totaled 185 points to finish last. The Quakers' finish was somewhat perplexing considering the talent and dedication they have shown throughout the season. "I'm really not sure what the problem was, but it was disappointing and unfortunate for all the work they've put in," Penn assistant Tony Tenisci said. Last week's season-ending injury to sophomore Christine Stavalone, the team's number four runner, certainly played a part in the mediocre showing. The Red and the Blue are also a young team that has considered this season all along to be a rebuilding year. "A lot of it has to do with inexperience," senior co-captain Melanie Gesker said. "Most of us had never run in a championship meet." Junior Michelle Belsley, who finished ninth with a time of 18 minutes, 46 seconds, was the lone bright spot for the Quakers in what was otherwise a gloomy day. Belsley's time beat her previous best on the course by almost 45 seconds. "She took herself to a very high level of performance," Tenisci said. "The fact that she was running alongside so many quality runners is very impressive. It was the race of her life." "I'm happy with how I performed because I haven't run with that sort of competition in a while," said Belsley, who will be the lone Penn runner to continue on to the ECAC championships in Boston in two weeks. Senior co-captains Gesker and Mary Conway finished second and third for the Quakers. Gesker placed 34th overall with a time of 19:50, while Conway finished 39th with a time of 19:54.