W. Track excited for first dual meet

For the Penn women's track team, the real season starts this weekend. Saturday, the Quakers travel to Princeton to participate in a dual meet with Yale and Princeton. This dual competition will be the first of its type for the team this season. Thus far, the women have only competed in invitational tournaments, including last weekend's rain-soaked Penn Invitational. "I feel that Princeton and Yale are really going to bring out the fire in our team," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "They are really looking forward to renewing the intra-conference rivalries." Despite this meet including three teams, coach Tenisci believes the real competition will take place between Princeton and Penn. "Yale has a strong team, but they don't have the depth of the two other competitors," Tenisci said. The coach commented that Princeton and Penn are very equal teams. Both schools have similar talent in sprinting and jumping, while Princeton is stronger in distance and Penn is stronger in throwing. "This will be a great track meet with the winner being whoever wants it more that day," Tenisci said. The players and coaches all feel that this season's previous meets have all been in preparation for the Ivy meets, and most believe that these prior competitions have accomplished this aim. "Last week was clearly training for the Ivy meets," Penn junior Mandy Bennett said. "Although we had a good showing, our past three tournaments are not that important in relation to our upcoming matches." The dual meets are similar to the other tournaments as far as events are concerned. The differences lie with the competition -- league opponents make the matches more intense. "We're ready for the dual meets," Penn senior Dawn McGee said. "We have seen that we can perform well in the bad weather, so I am confident we can do well in good weather." A win this weekend not only scores points, but is a good sign for future meets, which carry added benefits. In two weeks, the Quakers face Cornell at home. This meet is not only important for the team's record, but the winners of the individual events also earn a trip to London to race during the summer. Despite the importance of the Princeton/Yale match, some athletes can't help but look forward to the Cornell match. "Cornell is the most important meet," McGee said. "But we are still really pumped up for this weekend." Tenisci also spoke about the Cornell match saying, "Although that meet is important, I hope our team isn't looking past this weekend's race, because it should be a great track meet."

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