W.X.-C off to Lehigh

Competing for the first time in the Wolf and Kettle Invitational at Loyola (Ill.) last weekend, the Penn women's cross country team once again had four top-20 finishers. For the second week in a row, Rita Garber was first for Penn and sixth overall with a time of 18 minutes, 53 seconds. Although Marquette ran away with top honors, the Quakers prevailed in a 69-73 dogfight for second place over hosts Loyola. This weekend, Penn will compete in the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa., where they have had a strong showing in recent years. Last season, the Quakers placed 13th out of 30 teams, led by graduated Michelle Belsley. The second-place finisher for Penn was Garber, then a sophomore, in her first season at Penn. "I didn't race aggressively and I was a little tentative," Garber said, "but I was also new to running in college." Quakers assistant coach Tony Tenisci was happy the girls "finished very close together." Kristen Duyck came in 12th, Christin Gregory 14th, Kim Winslow 17th and Meredith Rossner in 19th place. The athletes' rigorous training program has produced some satisfying results so far this season. Penn finished second to Brown in the first meet of the season at Fordham and followed that performance with another second-place finish in Chicago. Last year, the Red and Blue finished sixth at Fordham and Garber finished in 19:27. This year, she shaved 17 seconds off her previous time and moved up six places in the standings as a result. Penn's rigorous training schedule included simulating race conditions in practice. "We broke down the race into its different parts, like hilly courses and long straightaways," Tenisci said. "The girls also ran fast mile repeats with 30 seconds to rest in between sessions." This weekend, the focus of the Penn runners will be on "coordinating to try and ensure that we have five girls who are hitting it on the same day," Tenisci said. As far as courses go, the one at Lehigh is sometimes used in the Eastern Invitationals and is definitely one of the best that Penn will run this season, according to Tenisci. "The Paul Short Invitational is a quality course that brings out the best in the girls," Tenisci said.