Penn sprinters start scoring tomorrow

Track and field is a sport filled with exciting races and close finishes, but perhaps the most exciting event of them all is the 4x100-meter relay. In such a short race, each runner has little or no margin of error with which to work. One split-second mistake can be the difference between being the hero or the goat. No four people know both the exhilaration and stress that go into this race better than the members of the Penn women's 4x100 relay team. This year's team returns all four runners from last year's team which won the Outdoor Heptagonal Championships. The squad consists of juniors Dawn McGee and Renata Clay, sophomore Shana McDonald-Black and senior Kelley King. King, a two-time co-captain from Evanston, Ill., anchors the foursome, consistently going head-to-head with the best runner from every other school. She is more than capable of holding her own against the best. After finishing third at the Outdoor Heps in the 100 last spring and posting a variety of strong performances, King was named Penn Track Most Valuable Player for her accomplishments. McGee, a junior, has already garnered Ivy League champion status in the 100-meter outdoor hurdles and second team All-Ivy honors in the 55-meter indoor hurdles. Also a junior, Clay placed sixth in the Outdoor Heps in the 100, registering a time of 12.46 seconds. McDonald-Black, just a sophomore, enjoyed an outstanding rookie season on the track and solidifies the second spot in the relay. What makes this squad so strong, however, is not simply the combination of four outstanding individual performers. Penn's 4x100 team understands that it is a team effort. Last season, the Quakers' coaches noticed their times in the 4x100 were not as good as they should be. In the past, they had never focused much on the relays and lacked consistency, rotating people in and out of spots on a weekly basis. Once they established a regular foursome, worked on their timing and practiced their hand-offs, the results were impressive. "It was such a new way of doing things, but once we made the changes, our times dropped dramatically," King said. Just a year later, the squad is already on the verge of breaking the school record. "Our school record is 47-low and we're running 47-mid to -high. By the end of the season, we hope to scratch that," McGee said. "Our goals are to break the record, to run under 47 [seconds] and to run well at ECACs," adds Clay. Coach Betty Costanza hopes the 4x100 team, and the rest of the Penn squad, will perform well this Saturday. The Quakers face off against archrival Princeton and Yale in a dual meet at Franklin Field. This is Penn's first scoring meet of the season and, in all likelihood, their only scoring meet before the all-important Heptagonal Championships on May 10 and 11. "Princeton is definitely one of our top rivals in the league," Clay said. Princeton is led by All-American Nicole Harrison, a sprinter who dominates on any level. She also runs the anchor leg on the Tigers' 4x100 team that edged out the Quakers last weekend to take first place in the University of Pennsylvania Invitational. Do not think that the Penn squad is intimidated by the Tigers, though. "Sometimes they have good days, sometimes we have good days," King said. Which relay team has a "good day" tomorrow should go a long way toward determining the overall winner.