George Mason's Wright takes heptathlon

Poor weather, few events left the heptathletes to labor in relative obsurity yesterday before the action begins in earnest. With only a few events scheduled and weekend-long chaos ready to hit the Penn campus today, yesterday's Penn Relay Carnival action was the proverbial calm before the storm. The weather, however, had other ideas. Mother Nature graced Franklin Field with a consistent drizzle and cool temperatures throughout the day. Between the bad weather and the lack of action, few fans other than athletes' parents came out to see the women's heptathlon, the men's decathlon and the men's pole vault. Those who were in attendance, though, were treated to an outstanding display of athleticism and competition. Day two of the women's heptathlon saw Lisa Wright of George Mason blow away all competition in the seven-event competition with a final score of 5,653. The score places her among the top heptathletes in the country. George Mason coach Norm Gordon was pleased, but not at all surprised by Wright's performance, which qualified her for nationals. "It's still nice when it happens," Gordon said. "[Her scores] look good on paper, but unless you actually complete seven events, then you have nothing." Wright finished first in the 100-meter hurdles, the high jump, the shot put, the 200-meter dash and the long jump. She also placed third in the 800-meter run and fourth in the javelin throw. Minnesota's Apasha Blocker placed second, finishing 507 points behind Wright. Blocker placed second in the shot put, the javelin and the 800. She also placed third in the 200. Penn senior co-captain Angie Jimenez placed sixth overall, with a score of 4,825. Jimenez's top finishes included a third place in the 800 with a personal-best time of two minutes, 18.87 seconds, fourth in the javelin with a toss of 36.42 meters and sixth in the shot put at 11.02 meters. Jimenez's score was down from her high of 5,123 last spring. That score made her a provisional qualifier for nationals, but ranked her 30th overall while only the top 20 were selected to advance. "I'm not real happy with how I competed," Jimenez said. "Yesterday was just a bad memory I'm trying to leave behind me. At least I did a little bit better today." Jimenez did not make any excuses about her performance, refusing to cite the weather as a factor. Nor was she bothered by yesterday's sparse crowd. "The feeling and prestige of the meet is the same," she said. "Even if you don't compete in front of thousands of people, it's still the Penn Relays." Although she is done competing for the week, Jimenez will relax and support her teammates. The majority of the running events will begin today with high school girls' and college women's competition, as well as men's and women's Olympic development races.