W. Track closer to home at Delaware Invite

The Quakers backed out of the Bucknell Invitational and instead will compete in the Delaware Invite. After a highly competitive meet last weekend, the women's track team will head to the University of Delaware tomorrow night to compete in the Delaware Invitational. Last weekend, the team traveled almost eight hours to Blacksburg, Va., to compete in the Virginia Tech Invitational. This proved to be a strenuous feat for the women's team. The meet boasted some of the best teams on the east coast, including Tennessee, Georgia and Miami. Along with the intense competition, the women had to face a long journey. The team left Thursday night and did not return until Sunday. The combination of high-caliber competition and a lengthy, vigorous trip took a toll on the team. As a result of the gruelling journey, the women will head to Delaware this weekend rather than Bucknell as originally scheduled. The Delaware competition will, comparatively speaking, seem like a home meet. The coaches want to prevent another draining weekend for the athletes. "We don't want to go out on the road longer now. It's too exhausting," coach Tony Tenisci said. "We're going to give them a night meet at Delaware, and then give them the weekend to recover. Everybody's so exhausted right now." Due to last weekend's high caliber of competition, the number of participants was limited to three in each event. Only 30 team members were able to make the trip down to Virginia. Some of the younger, less experienced women were unable to compete and are excited to participate in this weekend's meet. "It's not all the same girls that went last weekend," Tenisci said. "It'll be a lot of the kids that didn't go, and some who feel they want to have another opportunity. It's matter of trying to get as much competition under everybody's belt." The team is familiar with the track and the facility at Delaware since Penn competed there almost two weeks ago. In that meet Penn finished first against some other Division I schools, including Maryland and North Carolina State. In addition to the first place finish, three of the team members set school records. "They like Delaware. They felt Delaware was a very good meet. We're looking forward to it," Tenisci said. "We enjoyed ourselves there. It's close, it's a very good facility and we hope to do well." New records were set in the shotput by junior Luana Botelho and in the weight throw by junior Many Bennett. Also, junior Jessica Mitchell set a record in the 500 meter run. In the same meet, numerous personal records were set. As Heptagonals come closer into view, the team members are focusing on becoming consistent. "We've been there before and we know how the track is," Penn senior Satsuki Mitchell said. "And everyone's really starting to get geared up for Heps, and so they're getting more determined."