Penn finishes third behind Garber's effort at Rutgers Invite

A strong team effort made by the Penn women's cross country team lead to a hard-fought third place finish in the Rutgers Invitational last weekend. The Quakers finished with a team score of 51, finishing behind Navy (31) and Rutgers (50). "Everyone on the team is learning to run together by using each other," senior captain Rita Garber said. "This race enhanced the team's confidence, which is necessary in the larger races at the end of the season." The Quakers were lead by Garber's individual showing, which was good enough for second overall with a time of 17:58. With this performance, Garber achieved her season goal and cross country personal record by breaking the 18 minute mark. Penn's top five runners finished in the top 20 overall, but it was not enough to overpower Navy and Rutgers. Navy's 31 points was led by Jolene Voryo's time of 17:43, good for first overall. And Rutgers' second place finish with 50 points, edging out the Quakers by only one point, was helped by an 18:09 performance by Colleen Sunderland. "Navy has been training for a month longer, so they were physically ahead of us, but it was disappointing to lose to Rutgers by only one point," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. Freshman Susie Cook and junior Stephanie Bell tied for a second place finish on the team and a 10th place finish overall with a time of 18:54. This race showed a significant improvement in Cook's racing ability. "I felt strong the whole way and went all out at the end. I worked off of other runners to gain my final position in the race," Cook said. With a time of 19:04, freshman Katie Henderson finished fourth for the Quakers and 12th overall. Following closely behind her, sophomore Meredith Rossner finished with a time of 19:11, locking in the fifth spot for Penn and 14th overall. The team spread [time between first and fifth runners] improved to 1:13 compared to 1:20 from last week. More importantly, there were only 17 seconds between the four runners after Garber. This performance is another step toward the team's ultimate goal this season of achieving a 40-second spread. This weekend the upperclassmen stepped up to take their places on the team, with only three of the top seven being freshmen. "The leadership from the upperclassmen really brought the team together this weekend. It helped build our individual and team confidence," Henderson said. At this Saturday's Paul Short Invitational, the Quakers will be racing against 30 other teams. The Quakers are hoping to work with one another and stay focused throughout the entire race so that the overwhelming number of runners doesn't hinder their performances.