Young W.X-C squad boasts three fosh in team's top five

The Penn women's cross country team started its season in style, coming in second of 17 teams at the Fordham University Fiasco Cross Country Meet held this past weekend in New York City. With 63 points, the Quakers were able to beat Ivy rivals Yale, (third with 68 points) and Harvard (fifth, 121) and also local rival St. Joseph's, who only came in sixth -- over 100 points behind Penn. The team was not able to prevail over first-place Brown, which scored 46 points. Junior Rita Garber, the top runner for Penn at Fordham, came in sixth among 152 runners, with a time of 19 minutes, 10 seconds -- 40 seconds behind Yale's Anara Kelly, the eventual winner. The other women earning points for Penn were freshman Kim Winslow (19:23), captain Kristen Duyck (19:27), freshman Jessica Hulse (19:34) and freshman Meredith Rossner (19:49), placing 10th, 12th, 15th and 23rd, respectively. "The team had an outstanding meet," Quakers assistant coach Tenisci said. "We beat some of our Ivy League competitors? overall it was a great meet with a very young team." The 14-woman team is young, returning only five runners. They were excited to have three freshmen prove themselves by breaking into the team's top five. "The freshmen showed a lot of quality and a lot of poise," Tenisci said. At the same meet last year, the team placed only sixth. Garber was very pleased with this year's Fordham results saying that it showed that the team was promising, despite its youth. "We are young, but the underclassmen are looking good," Garber said. The freshmen were making their debut at Fordham, running in their first collegiate meet. "I was really nervous, but it was not as scary as I thought," Rossner said. Still Rossner found the race, which ran through Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx very fast, owing to the fact that the course was resurfaced this past summer. "I surprised myself," said Winslow about her 10th-place standing at Fordham and her second-place position on the team. "I did not know what we could do. I think that we surprised a lot of people, including ourselves." The team is hoping to continue its success, starting with the meet this coming weekend at Loyola of Chicago. Still, they are currently training through meets, with their final goal the Heptagonals in late October. Last year, Penn came in second-to-last in the Heptagonals and Garber spoke for her team saying, "That's not going to happen again."