W. Track impressive at Cornell

This past weekend freshman field specialist Luana Botelho shot putted herself into the Penn record books with a throw of 41 feet, nine inches -- breaking by more than 4 inches the old mark set by Jennifer Alexander in 1990. "I had been having knee problems and we were going with a new technique so I wasn't exactly sure how I would do," Botelho said. However, after a strong workout on Thursday, Botelho and her fellow Quakers headed up to Ithaca, N.Y., confident they had a good chance of beating Cornell, who finished first in the Ivy League last season. After failing to place in the twenty-pound weight event, a record was not on Botelho's mind. "I did horrible in my first event," Botelho said. "I think that psyched me up for the shot put event." Botelho performance did not surprise assistant coach Tony Tenisci. "She is very athletic, a good learner and, in fact, her high school performance was better than our school record," Tenisci said. With Botelho and the deep freshman class leading the way, Penn topped the Big Red, 82-73. Freshman Mandy Bennett also took third place in the shot put, and junior Christi Strawley captured fifth. On the track, Penn looked equally impressive. Taking first in the 800 meters, Michele Belsley, running the event for the first time since last spring, had a personal best of two minutes, thirteen seconds. Sophomore Melanie Gesker gave Penn a first-place finish in the 5,000 meters. Her time of 18:36 seconds was a 12 seconds in front of Cornell's top runner. The Quakers demonstrated their depth in the sprint events, taking second through sixth places in both the 55-meter dash and the 55-meter hurdle event. In the 55-meter dash Renetta Clay's second-place finish of 7.53 seconds lead the way, and Dawn McGee's time of 8.57 seconds lead Penn's near-sweep in the 55-meter hurdle event. Back on the field, freshman Kim Mason took first place in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet, four inches. In the triple jump, freshman Lisa El topped the field with a leap of 36 feet, 4 inches. More important than the victory this past weekend was the way they are geling. "Both captains [juniors Angie Jeminez and Kelley King] have been really great," Botelho said. "They both have worked so hard, and the determination in each of them is inspiring to all of us. In addition, they have definitely made the effort to keep in touch with each member of the team, and that has helped too."