W. Track finishes fourth at Heps

Brown wins thirdBrown wins thirdoutdoor Heps crownBrown wins thirdoutdoor Heps crownin past four years From the opening day of the spring season, the Penn woman's track team had one goal in mind -- winning the outdoor Heptagonal Championships. Anchored by junior captains Angie Jimenez and Kelley King, the Quakers entered the season with something to prove to their Ivy League opponents. Penn was coming off a surprise first-place finish at the indoor Heps. The Quakers were expected to finish in the middle of the pack, especially with a number of key athletes sitting out with injuries. During the outdoor season, the Quakers had their most successful season since 1988, when they won the Heps title. This year, freshman Luana Botelho broke the school shot put record, and Penn overall dominated field events for most of the season. The Quakers, however, showed signs of mortality in the final week of the regular season, getting dominated in every aspect of competition except the long jump. Penn returned to practice the following week convinced it would rebound at the Penn Relays and Heps. Returning the Yale -- the sight of one of the Quakers' best regular-season meets -- for Heps brought Penn renewed confidence. After a lackluster start to the spring season, Jimenez won the heptathlon, in a performance reminiscent of last season's effort that earned her an NCAA bid. Kelley King anchored the highly-touted Quakers 4x100 relay team to a first-place finish, and Penn sophomore Dawn McGee's shocked Brown's Tanya Hall in the 100-meter hurdles. As a team, however, the Quakers could not complete the indoor-outdoor Heps double dip. Penn finished fourth with 91.33 team points, behind champion Brown (144.33), Cornell (128) and Dartmouth (116). This year's Heps crown was the Bears' third in the past four years, after winning just one championship in the previous 16 years. Penn freshman long jumper Kimberly Mason earned second-team all-Ivy honors for the Red and Blue. Mason jumped 5.62 meters and finished just 0.02 meters behind Princeton's Aiyanna Burton. The other two members of the Quakers freshman long-jump trio -- Aquiyla Muhammed and Lisa El -- finished third and fifth, respectively, at 5.59 meters and 5.58 meters. Botelho uncharacteristically struggled in the shot put. But she made up for that with a strong performance in the discus, placing third with a 42.44-meter throw. On the track, Penn junior Michelle Belsley had the fastest time in the qualifying heat for the 800-meter run at 2:12.74. Belsley ran an even stronger 2:11.21 in the final heat, but Cornell runners Jessica Shaw and Becky Dennision both edged Belsley by a couple steps. For the Quakers, the fourth-place finish is somewhat of a disappointment. Penn, however, will lose just two players -- Mary Lourdes Conway and Monica McCullough -- from this season's squad. With both Jimenez and King back as seniors next year, the stellar jumpers and throwers a year older and the return of the core nucleus of this season's team, the Quakers will have another opportunity to reap havoc on the track next spring. This year, Penn may have had the talent to occasionally dominate, but it lacked the experience necessary to consistently finish on top. With another season's experience now under their belts, the Quakers must strive to reach the next level. If they can consistently display the potential they have at times shown, it is doubtful that Penn will have to wait too much longer to bring home an outdoor Heptagonal Championships title to West Philly.

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