W. Track almost edges favorite Princeton

A banner hanging in the entrance to Princeton's Jadwin Gym urged the Tigers to "Pulverize Penn!" The sign was an attempt by Princeton to try and psyche the Quakers out before the meet began. But the Penn women's track team responded with a gusty performance and resoundingly turned the sign into "Pulverize Penn! -- NOT!" The Tigers did not even come close to achieving their goal of "pulverizing Penn." While the final score showed Princeton out-dueling the Quakers, 63-55, the meet was much closer than the score indicated. "It came down to a point here and a point there," Penn coach Betty Costanza said. "I thought we needed to sweep the long jump and that was a missed opportunity." Much as Costanza expected, Princeton dominated the distance events, while Penn swept almost all the field events. What hurt Penn the most was the Tigers' quiet control of the sprinting events. First place eluded Penn in the sprinting events. From Penn freshman Stephanie Hunt's third-place finish in the 400-meter dash (60.07 seconds) to junior co-captain Kelley King's third-place in the 200-meter dash (26.2 seconds). Coming into the Princeton meet both sprints were expected to bring Penn big points. King, who along with junior Adria Ferguson and freshmen Michele Satine and Sonya Crosswell, had run the night before at the Millrose Games, appeared to show signs of tiring late in the race when she failed to catch the two Princeton runners ahead of her. "In one sense, when you run one day and then the next, you know you're not going to be at 100 percent," King said. "I can't really say that Millrose attributed to my performance at Princeton. In the 200, I think that my form wasn't there, and I think there was a lot of things that just didn't feel right about that race." Hunt and Satine also felt their finishes in the 400 were subpar. "We knew going in that Princeton had five excellent 400 runners who were all experienced," Satine said. "Stephanie and I both felt we had energy left after the race and that we didn't go out fast enough in the first lap." No first places were to be found in the middle-distance or long-distance events either. "We were just thin in the distance events, even though we have good people," said Penn co-captain Angie Jimenez, who placed second in the shot put and third in the 55-meter hurdles. Quakers junior Michelle Belsley had intended to get things off on the right foot for the women's track team. Belsley had been racking up one first place after another all season. At Princeton, Belsley ran into some of her toughest opponents and finished second with an ECAC-qualifying time of 4 minutes, 55 seconds. In the 3,000-meter race, Penn senior Melanie Gesker took third place with a time of 10:25, thanks in part to Quakers assistant coach Cricket Batz-Shaklee's guidance throughout the race. "Don't you dare give up Melanie! Don't you dare give up on me!" Batz-Shaklee shouted from the sideline. For the third-straight weekend, the throwers and jumpers had top-notch performances. Penn swept the throwing events, led by junior Erin Soley's first place in the 20-pound weight event (47 feet, 11 inches). "We all had very good days, but basically we didn't have much competition," Soley said. For Soley, the first-place throw continued her streak of setting a personal best each meet this season. Soley nearly qualified for the ECACs in the 20-pound weight event, missing by 1 1/2 inches. "I think a lot of it is the weight training this year," Soley said. "My strength has increased. The weight is a very technical event, and I think a lot of things have clicked this year." Penn's strong performance in the high jump ended the meet on a positive note for the Quakers. Sophomore Tiffany Archer placed first with a leap of 5 feet, 7 inches and was an inch away from breaking the Princeton track record. Quakers sophomore Satsuki Mitchell finished second with a personal best of 5' 5 (is this the right style Jeff). "I would like to have pulled out a win, but Princeton always puts up a good fight," Costanza said. "Every year it comes down to just a few points separating us."