Cornell knocks off W. Track in weekend dual meet

There is little doubt that the Penn women's track and field team has the talent to win the Heptagonal Championships this spring. The Quakers, however, have been plagued by a season-long inconsistency. After opening up the spring season at the Penn Invitational with a mediocre performance, the Red and Blue rebounded to dominate the six-team field a week later at the Quaker Invite. The following week, Penn had a subpar performance, failing to win a single event at the University of Pennsylvania Invitational. But a week ago, Penn returned to its dominant form, earning more team points than Princeton and Yale combined. The Quakers, however, hit a seasonal low on Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y., falling to Cornell to drop to a 1-1 record on the season. Penn lost to Cornell by a score of 84 1/3 to 59 2/3, a margin of victory great enough to cast doubts on any championship hopes. The Big Red earned their victory by dominating several key events. In the 800-meter run, Cornell freshman Jessica Shaw, junior Becky Dennison and freshman Chris Groneman finished first, second, and third, respectively. The trio of Cornell junior Kate Walker, sophomore Zara Zurawski and senior Linda Scheu accomplished the same feat in the 1500. "I think Dartmouth will be the team up there to beat, but we will also have Princeton and Cornell up there," Penn coach Betty Costanza said before the match-up with the Big Red at the U of P Invite. The Big Red expanded their lead by defeating Penn in three of four throwing events. Cornell sophomore Chris Kervaski edged Penn junior and team captain Angie Jimenez in the shot put. Kervaski also won the discus throw with a walloping 42.98-meter launch. Kervaski's stellar performance ended a season-long Quaker domination of the shot put and discus events. Cornell senior Casey Cadille earned the Big Red's third first-place finish in the hammer-throw, even with Penn junior Christi Strawley throwing for a personal best of 44.94-meters. Although the Quakers struggled as a team, they still had several strong individual performances. Penn finished first and second in both the 100-meter hurdles and long jump. In the 100 hurdles, Penn sophomore Dawn McGee raced her way to a first place finish in just 14.61 seconds. Junior Nuru Hunter crossed the finished line second at 15.29 seconds. In the long jump, the freshmen duo of Kimberly Mason and Lisa El finished first and second at 5.44 and 5.32 meters. "Our top athletes in the individual events were Kim Mason in the long jump, and Lisa El right behind Kim," Penn coach Tony Tenisci said. Stephanie Hunt also had a stand-out day for the Quakers, winning the 400 hurdles with a season-best time of 58.18 seconds. And Penn sophomore Christina Schelin threw the javelin a personal-record distance to become the Quakers' lone winner in a throwing event. Penn also had an impressive showing in the 4x100 relay. After struggling early in the season, the Quakers relay team of Kelley King, Shana MacDonald-Black, Renata Clay, and Dawn McGee finished first for the second consecutive meet. Saturday's meet with Cornell was the Quakers final tune-up before the Penn Relays and the Heptagonal Championships. If the meet was any indication of Penn's potential, one would assume the Quakers will continue to struggle. The Quakers must hope that, once again, their previous meet's performance will serve as little indication of how they will perform in their following meets.