ECACs was the season highlight for Quakers

The Penn women's cross country assistant coach Cricket Shaklee promised the Quakers that last Saturday's race would be the icing on the cake of their season. Indeed, the ECAC championship was not only the highlight of the season, but was the best race that the Penn runners ever raced. Five runners entered for Penn -- freshmen Kacy Corbett and Anita Kumar, sophomore Rita Garber, junior Kristen Duyck, and senior Lorie Roth. The day's biggest disappointment was that freshman Stephanie Bell did not participate because she didn't feel well and was injured in practice the week before. Each of the five runners beat their personal records by at least 20 seconds. Garber, who improved her best time by 47 seconds, said that "we were all thrilled with the results, and Lorie was simply glowing." Although Penn (744 points) did not place well, coming in 29th out of 33 teams, the team was pleased with its performance, and was excited to be running with such stiff competition. Out of 221 runners, Penn placed 90th (Garber), 137th (Duyck), 163th (Corbett), 174th (Kumar), and 180th (Roth). The first-place finisher completed the 3.1-mile course in a mere 16 minutes, 27 seconds and will go on to compete in the NCAA championships along with the other top finishers in the ECACs. Rather than fearing their competition, coach Shaklee told her runners to think of the race as being stress-free. In fact, the best teams like Villanova (37) and Georgetown (77), which finished first and second only encouraged the Quakers to run their fastest. Sometimes Penn doesn't even participate in the Championships because of the high caliber of the competition. This year, however, not only did they send five runners, but they entered them in the most competitive race. The ECACs consist of three levels of races: Varsity A, Varsity B, and JV. The Quakers were pleased to run with the Varsity A, and realized that if they had run in the Varsity B, they all would have place about 80 places higher. "It was a great race, great temperature, and great course. Everyone [broke their personal records] and since they were only five of us, the intimidation wasn't there," Kumar said. "We all ran together because we knew that for such a fast race we all had to motivate each other to run our best." On Friday the team ran the course for practice. Overall, they were pleased with the conditions at Franklin Park. The course is almost flat except for one hill about 1.5 miles into the race and then a downhill immediately afterwards. The first 150 meters of the race was an open field -- all 221 participants were headed for the same point, a sharp turn. Everyone ran in a pack to the first turn, slowed down, and then used speed to spread out after the turn. "I thought it was a positive meet for us and a really good way to end the season," Garber said. "For me, it's the meet I've been waiting for all season. I haven't felt this good about a race since our first [at Fordham]. I think it was a good decision for Cricket to put us in the most competitive race because it pushed us more. We wouldn't have run as fast with lesser competition." The Quakers thought it was exhilarating to run with the best in the country and although it was particularly cold on Saturday, they felt prepared for their race. They realized the value of the experience and were proud just of having made it to the ECACs. For three out of five of them, it was their first cross country season, and for all, it was their first appearance at ECACs. "It was our best meet of the season by far -- we all beat our [personal records] by at least 20 seconds," senior Lorie Roth said. "What was so nice about the race was that Cricket was so laid back. She told us to 'Just go out there, run, and have fun.' The reason why it's so great is that we're all really positive about next season [indoor track]."