W. Track satisfied with third-place in Heps

Not all winners place first. The Penn women's track team finished third and still managed to walk away as winners. Last weekend the team traveled to Princeton to compete in the Heptagonal Championships to determine the 1998 Indoor Ivy League Champion. Penn finished the meet with 71 points, behind Princeton (112) and Brown (91). Though Penn was unable to reclaim the title, the Quakers were nevertheless satisfied with their performance. "Everyone went in and gave it their all and that's all you can ask for," junior Luana Botelho said. "Some things didn't go our way and other things did." Midday Sunday, Penn was sitting at the bottom of the competition -- in seventh place -- despite Penn junior Aqiyla Muhammad's close second-place finish in the long jump. But through some "miracle," Penn picked up the pieces and managed to climb its way to a third-place finish. "Somehow or other these kids found it in themselves to come from seventh [place], half way through the day, to third by the end of the day," Penn coach Tony Tenisci said. "There was a miracle produced by the shotputters, the triple jumpers and the hurdlers." Sitting in seventh, the Quakers started scoring more points, but did not gain ground on the leaders. In the high jump, senior Satsuki Mitchell and junior Lindsey Anderson placed fifth and sixth, ` respectively, setting personal bests in the process. Mitchell also managed, by route of her performance, to qualify for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships this weekend. On the track, junior Jessica Mitchell placed third in the 800 meter run, as junior Shana McDonald-Black finished fifth in the 200 meter dash. "We were expecting to be champions or in the top three, being in seventh for most of the meet was disappointing for us," Penn junior Mandy Bennett said. Despite these points, going in the 55 meter hurdles, the Quaker were still sitting in seventh and hopes of a redeemable finish were glum. But freshman JaJuan Gair, senior Dawn McGee and sophomore Christyne Faulkner managed to turn the spirit around as they took three of the six scoring positions. Gair finished third and set a personal record of 8.17 seconds, outrunning her previous best time by more than 0.1 of a second. McGee was only 0.1 seconds behind Gair to finish fourth. And Faulkner placed sixth with a time of 8.34. The three finishes in the hurdles advanced Penn to fifth place. Then, in the 55 meter dash, Faulkner and McDonald-Black placed fifth and sixth, respectively, to keep Penn within reach. The 4x400 relay team finished fourth in 3 minutes, 49.57 seconds. With only two events left, Penn knew that a first place finish was out of reach, but the team still continued to compete fiercely. In the triple jump, sophomore Ruth Neuhaus pulled off a second-place finish with a distance of 11.79 meters. Junior Lisa El was a close fourth at 11.76 meters. "It was centimeters separating that triple jump. It was unbelievable tension in that meet," Tenisci said. "[Neuhaus and El] were terrific and we needed those points huge." With the great finishes by the triple jumpers, Penn closed in on fourth place. But don't be deluded into thinking that Penn's turnaround was limited to "on the track." The event that secured third place for the Quakers was the shotput. Botelho took the only first place finish of the meet for Penn. Botelho outthrew her old Penn record by almost two feet setting a new school record of 14.08 meters. "It's a distance that I've wanted all season," Botelho said. "I was like, it's going to happen today, it's got to happen today. If it's going to happen anywhere, it should be at Heps." Not only did Botelho succeed in setting a personal record, but the other Penn finishers likewise managed to set new personal records. Bennett finished fourth and freshman Yinka Orafidiya placed fifth, helping Penn to overcome Harvard and Cornell and take third place. "That was a spectacular throw that she did," Tenisci said. "She brought all of these young people along with her. Mandy and Yinka both set PRs. That really gave us all of the points, that helped us go from seventh to third. "Every other shotputter just backed away from us. We just took off like a barn on fire."