W. Track ready for spring

The Quaker Invitational will show where penn sits after last month's fourth place finish at Heps. Angie Jimenez has been on the track since her freshman year of high school, out-running, out-jumping and out-throwing almost everyone on her way to becoming one of the most successful heptathletes in the East. Despite her numerous accolades and accomplishments, Jimenez enters her last season of competition at Penn without ever having reached the NCAA championships. Last spring she came close, scoring 5,123 points. While this made her a provisional qualifier, Jimenez ranked 30th nationwide, and only the top 20 were selected to advance. The co-captain of this year's Penn women's track and field squad, Jimenez is the school record-holder in both the heptathlon and pentathlon. Last season she garnered First-and Second-Team All-Ivy honors during the indoor season by winning the pentathlon and placing second in the long jump. In the spring, she defended her outdoor heptathlon title and went on to place fourth at the ECAC Outdoor Championships. After a solid indoor season, Jimenez is anxious for the spring to begin. "My scores weren't terrific [this winter], but I'm really focusing on outdoors? since it's my last shot to qualify for Nationals," Jimenez said. Feeling stronger and more determined this year, Jimenez plans on putting forth her best effort so that, whether she makes Nationals or not, she can finish her career without any regrets. Under Jimenez's leadership, the Penn squad is coming off an impressive winter season which saw it place fourth at the Indoor Heptagonals, a season-ending championship meet including the entire Ivy League and Navy. With the outdoor season scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Franklin Field, Jimenez hopes to lead the Red and Blue to a strong showing in the Quaker Invitational. This eight-team meet, including teams such as St. Joe's, LaSalle, Lehigh and Temple, will provide Quakers coach Betty Costanza with a starting point for the spring. "We'll be looking to see who our best people are and how we can put the best possible team together for the Heptagonals," said Costanza, who is entering her 22nd season at the helm. Costanza considers this year's Penn squad a very "technical" team. By this she means that their strength lies in the more precision-oriented events, such as the high jump, the hammer and the javelin, as opposed to the distance events. Costanza finds this to be somewhat of a concern based on the inconsistent nature of the technical events, referring to them as "soft points." The Quakers should, however, be strong in the sprints. Costanza is also interested in evaluating the talent in the new events, meaning those which were not part of the indoor season. These include many of the weight events and increased distances in many of the track events. While she anticipates Penn being one of the top four teams in the Ivy league, Costanza feels that the league has no clear-cut favorite. Along with Princeton, Brown and Cornell, Penn figures to be at or around the top when it is all said and done. With athletes like Angie Jimenez, it is easy to see why.