SEASON PREVIEW: W. Track remembers its title two years ago

After almost three months of practice, the Penn women's indoor track team gets to show its talent, as it competes in its first several meets of the year this weekend, traveling to Navy tonight and Lafayette tomorrow. The team finished fourth last year at the 1997 Indoor Heptagonals, after winning the championship the year before. "I know our senior class this year wants another championship; we won in '96," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "We won with 13 freshmen that year, so that class is now the junior class. They came in and really showed everyone how to do it." This season's seniors and juniors are what remain of the championship team from 1996. "This year we have a very good shot at the Ivy title -- we lost very few point-scorers," Quakers senior captain Jen Roy said. "We basically have the full team from last year, but what differs is that we lost a lot of leadership that the seniors brought." Despite losing Angie Jimenez (first team All-Ivy) to graduation, the Quakers are still confident about the current team. The Quakers look strong in technical events as well. Second team All-Ivy junior Luana Botelho, the 1997 outdoor Heps shotput champion, returns for her third season. Adding depth to the team is 1997 outdoor javelin champion senior Christina Schelin. Indoor Heps long jump champion Aqiyla Muhammed also returns. "It's very hard to win through the technical events, and that's what type of team we are. When we won in 1996, we won all through the technical events and very few from the track events," Tenisci said. "We did it the hard way, and that's what made it so sweet to win that year. So we're hoping to be strong in all the technical events and all the way through the half-mile." In the track events, Penn has several returning runners. Roy placed second in the 400-meter dash at Indoors last year, and in the process won second team All-Ivy honors and set a Quakers indoor record of 56.75 seconds. Roy ran the anchor leg of the second team All-Ivy 4x400 relay team, which also included juniors Sonya Croswell, Jessica Mitchell and Vicki Moore. Fellow teammate Dawn McGee finished second in the 55-meter hurdles with 8.19 seconds and sixth in 55-meter dash at 7.30 seconds. McGee was also second team All-Ivy and the 1996 outdoor Heps hurdle champion. "Last year's class is irreplaceable, but this year's senior class is also very strong, and the junior class is very strong," Tenisci said. "They are very good leaders. They are quality-orientated in what they do." The Quakers face Navy tonight, however the number of people competing in each event has been restricted due to time constraints. Those that do not compete against Navy are participating in the meet tomorrow at Lafayette. "We've been doing really intense workouts, I really think it's going to pay off and I think the team is going to open really well," Penn senior captain Renata Clay said.