W. Track pulls it all together in Cornell

In the seventh meet of the season, the Penn women's track team finally pulled all its talent together -- making a solid showing at Cornell by placing in the top five in nearly every event. As the indoor season comes to a close, the women's track team showed Cornell that it will be a contender for this year's title of Indoor Ivy League Champions. "This is the first time for the team that all the pieces started to come together," Penn coach Tony Tenisci said. "We could really see the depth of the team across the board. We saw that it can be a championship team." Two weeks ago, Penn traveled to Princeton in hopes of scaring the Tigers, the reigning indoor champions. Much to the Quakers' dismay, the two-way meet ended in a Penn loss, 50-68. In last weekend's meet against Cornell, Penn hoped to re-establish itself as a force within the league and its hopes became a reality. The Quakers had a top-five showing in 14 of the weekend's events. The team was led by many veterans, but a couple new faces also made significant contributions to the meet's success. Penn junior throwers Mandy Bennett and Luana Botelho continued to throw well in the 20 lb. weight and shotput, respectively. Bennett placed third with one of her best performances of the season. Botelho, the school record holder, placed second with a distance of 43 feet 11.75 inches. On the track, Penn senior Dawn McGee had a third place finish in the 55 meter hurdles with a time of 8.38 seconds. Freshman Ja Juan Gair finished fourth with the same time. Penn junior Jessica Mitchell continued her successful season as she took first place in the 1000 meter run. Mitchell ran one of the fastest times in the East and managed to set a personal record, outrunning her previous time by more than four seconds. Junior Michele Satine also set a personal record in the 500 meter, taking second place. Junior Victoria Moore took first in the 400 meter, while senior captain Jen Roy came in second. Mitchell, Satine, Moore and junior Sonya Crosswell also took first place in the 4 x 400 meter relay. In the 5000 meter, junior Rita Garber had her second-best time and finished first with a time of 17 minutes and 53.1 seconds. In the jumping pit, Penn junior Lisa El had a second place finish, in addition to setting a personal record of 18'7.5". El also managed third place in the triple jump. Another third place finish came in the high jump from junior Lindsey Anderson. One of the biggest performances of the meet came from freshman Bassey Adjah. In only her second time competing in the pentathlon, Adjah took first place with a total of 3,389 points. The pentathlon consists of the 55 meter hurdles, high jump, shotput, long jump and 800meter. In placing first, Adjah also managed to qualify for ECACs. "I'm excited. In the beginning of the year we set goals, and one of my goals was to do 3,300 in the pentathlon and in doing that I also qualify for ECACs," Adjah said. "This [win] makes me put my goals higher. In the beginning I didn't really believe I could do well in this event and it just helps me to build my confidence. I'm ready for ECACs and believe I have the potential to do well." The pentathlon is a multi-faceted event because not only does the athlete have to compete in five events, she also must change her focus throughout the competition in order to win. With new faces contributing to the team and the veterans continuing to lead the way, the women's track team is finally pulling all the pieces together to create a championship team.