M. Cross Country finishes 10th out of 24 teams at Iona Invitational

Ask any cross country runner how the weather is and more likely than not you'll get a reply along the lines of, "I hate it." It's only the beginning of October, but the Quakers wouldn't be surprised if it snowed on them next week. Monsoon-like rains, humidity and gusting winds have plagued the team in its first three races of the season. This past Saturday was no exception when Penn traveled to the Iona Invitational at Van Cortland Park, New York, where the Quakers raced to a 10th place finish in a field of 24 teams. Going into the race, Penn was focussed only on its own performance, hoping to come away with a better knowledge of the course, which will also host the Heptagonal Championship. "We did very well. It was a solid workman like effort," Quakers coach Charlie Powell said. "In some cases, traffic was a little crazy. There were some problems, but we still had six guys in the top 75 in a field of 350." Penn captain Matt Wilkinson was the first Quaker to cross the line, followed by Ross Albert, Matt Blodgett and freshmen Joe Campagna and Scott Clayton. In addition to the large field size, the Quakers were also frustrated by 25-30 mile per hour winds. "[The freshmen] did not get a true impression of how the course runs," Powell said. "You're hoping to run fast. I don't know if they can get a good impression. Comparing their times to times run by other teams on other days isn't a fair judge. We need a decent weather day to run on to build confidence up." Weather has given Penn problems at each race so far this year. Torrential rains at Maryland caused mud to build up on the runners shoes, slowing their pace. A week later at Navy, heat and humidity wore down the Quakers after a fast early racing pace, and the winds this past week gave Penn a trifecta of miserable racing days. Regardless of Mother Nature, Powell is mostly satisfied with his team's performance one-third of the way through the 1996 season. "For the most part we're right on schedule," Powell said. "We have a few hurts. [Paolo] Frescura didn't race this week. There are a few dead legs. Sooner or later, we'll find out where we are. We got to have some decent days."

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