X-Country to work on team race at Delaware

In almost every sport, the concept of team is crucial. Just as teammates must work together in basketball and soccer, the same is true for cross country. As both the Penn men's and women's cross country teams prepare to head to the Delaware Invitational on Saturday, the coaches are stressing the importance of working as a team. "We're going for a good, solid team race," men's cross country coach Charlie Powell said. "We're looking for our top five or six guys to show a lot." The leader of this group is junior Sean MacMillan. Last weekend, MacMillan placed second overall at the Navy Quadrangle in 25:25. Possessing the same mindset as his coach, MacMillan will look to run a smart team race before concentrating on his individual performance. "For the first three miles, we're going to try to run together with the leaders," MacMillan said. "After three miles, whoever has enough left will go." MacMillan will probably be one of those runners, and he should finish among the race leaders. Other Penn runners who are expected to place include Bryan Kovalsky, Scott Clayton, Jason Greene and Matt Gioffre. Gioffre, a freshman, finished sixth at Navy last weekend, and Powell believes he has a bright future with the Quakers. "He's one of the most talented freshmen around," Powell said. "He's a super kid with super talent." Talented freshman cross country runners seem to be in abundance this year, as three freshmen finished in the top five for the Penn women's team last weekend. Running at the Lafayette Invitational, first-year runners Susie Cook, Meghan Curran and Kelly Saladino each scored for the Red and Blue. Despite the performance of the freshmen and the fifth-place finish of team captain Rita Garber, Penn women's assistant coach Tony Tenisci would like the runners to work more as a team. "We'd like to see the pack be a little tighter. We need a strong performance as a unit, not so much as individuals," Tenisci said. Tenisci believes the Delaware Invitational -- which will also host Columbia, Richmond, Towson State and East Stroudsburg, among other schools -- will give the runners a chance to work on running as a group before the more important meets later in the season. "September is a growing month. We use it as a learning tool," Tenisci said. "We have to come together collectively as a team." Another goal that Tenisci would like to see his team accomplish is to have more runners, especially returning upperclassmen, finish closer to Garber. "The thing is that everyone has to be on, and that doesn't happen too often in cross country," Garber said. For both teams, having everyone perform at a high level this weekend is important. Although the season is still young, the competition can be fierce. "I know Columbia will be going in and looking to pounce on us," Powell said. MacMillan has faced and beaten several of Columbia's runners in the steeplechase during track season. He also believes that individuals from Delaware may pose a threat. Members of both Penn teams hope to stay with the top runners from other schools for most of the race. More importantly, though, they hope to stay with each other.