X-Country squads ready for NY Heps

Belseley leads Women For the women's cross-country team, today's Heptagonal Championships are its final opportunity to show the rest of the Ivy League that the Quakers can compete with top-flight competition. The Heps, which are being held at VanCortlandt Park in New York City, will include all eight Ivy League schools as well as Army and Navy. The Quakers have had an up-and-down season so far this year, highlighted by a Sept. 30 victory at the Lafayette Invitational Meet. Led by junior Michelle Belsley, who has posted the fastest time for Penn in every race in which she has competed, the Red and the Blue have pieced together a solid season. But injuries and an inability to run as a team have plagued the Quakers throughout the season. Belsley was forced to miss two different meets due to unrelated leg injuries. And most recently, Christine Stavalone, the team's number four runner, suffered a leg injury that has ended her season. If the loss of Stavalone does not prove to be crushing, and if the rest of the Quakers can run times which approach Belsley's imminent top-10 finish, they have a chance at finishing among the top four or five teams. But in order to do so, the team has to run in a pack that starts the race at a quick pace and finishes equally strong.