W.X.C. struggles at Fordham Invitational

In sports, chance can often be a competitor's best friend or her worst enemy. Michelle Belsley, senior captain of the Penn women's cross country team, unfortunately found out the latter this weekend at the Fordham Invitational, the Quakers' first meet of the season. Belsley, who finished in the top five two years ago as a sophomore and was the top Penn finisher last year at the same meet, was unable to finish the race due to an illness that had been bothering her for a few days before the race. Despite Belsley's inability to finish the race, Penn finished an encouraging sixth place out of a field of 15. Ivy League rivals Harvard and Yale both finished ahead of Penn. The Crimson took first place while the Elis finished fourth. Sophomore Rita Garber led the Quakers, crossing the finish line 12th overall with a time of 19 minutes, 27 seconds. The Red and Blue's other top 25 finisher was junior Kristen Duyck, who finished 20th overall. Quakers freshmen Kacy Corbett and Stephanie Bell topped off their first collegiate meet finishing 28th and 33rd, respectively. Corbett described her first collegiate race as "intimidating at first." "I ran conservatively, but I felt good at the end," the freshman runner said, also adding that next time she will run with more confidence. The Fordham meet will be a good foundation to continue building the team. Both Duyck and Corbett agreed that the team was pleased with its performance. Corbett said one of the team's strengths is that they "all feed off each other and push each other to run faster." Team chemistry is critical in cross country because running well is a team goal. Duyck praised the team effort saying, "everyone ran pretty competitively." "The team still needs to work on running together up front," Duyck added. Penn will look to build on the strong finish of Garber and Duyck as they look towards the rest of the season. Penn coach Betty Costanza will look to Belsley and Lori Roth along with juniors Kristen Duyck and Linda Packard to continue to offer leadership to the younger runners. However, if the Fordham Invitational is any indication of what is to come, Garber will be right up there at the front of the pack with the more experienced runners. The team will return to the same course in early November for the Heptagonal Championships, the biggest meet of the season. The team hopes that Belsley will be ready for their next challenge, a meet at Princeton on Friday. Maybe this time, chance will be Penn's best friend.