Garber, W. X-Country both ninth at Heps

Van Cortlandt Park continues to be an unfriendly place for the Penn women's cross country team. Two weeks after placing ninth out of 12 teams in the East Coast Athletic Conference race at the Bronx park, the Quakers struggled again Friday, finishing last in the nine team field at the Heptagonal Championships. Penn's 209 points placed them 12 points behind eighth place Harvard. Cornell took the overall title with 56 points, with Brown earning second (63 points) and Dartmouth third (91). The race consisted of the eight Ivy League squads plus Navy. Yale's Ariana Kelly was the individual winner, with a time of 17:40.9, while Emily Germano of Cornell finished second, five seconds off of Kelly's pace. The bright spot for Penn was once again senior captain Rita Garber, who crossed the finish line in ninth place in a time of 18:15.6. It was the fifth top 10 performance of the season for Garber. Junior Stephanie Bell (43rd place in 19:21.9) was the second Quaker finisher, followed by senior Jessica Mitchell (50th; 19:34.6) and sophomore Meredith Rossner (51st; 19.35.9). Freshman Katie Henderson continued her promising first season, placing 56th out of 81 competitors in a time of 19:46.5. The top five runners counted toward each team's score. Nine runners competed for each team. "The race definitely could have gone a lot better," Rossner said. "Things just didn't fall into place for us. We are better than we were earlier in the season. Most of the team was freshmen. We have a bright future." "It was a neat atmosphere, with all the prestigious universities," Susie Cook said of her first Heptagonal Championships. Cook, one of four freshmen who raced for the Quakers Friday, was the team's fifth runner in 20:09.6. "I'm used to high school races, so to see all the Ivy League schools competing was incredible." Having raced on the same course two weeks prior to the Heps gave the runners an idea of what they were up against. "The course is difficult. It has a lot of uphills, and the downhills don't really compensate because take a lot out of you. You could pace yourself better [racing the course the second time], and you knew where to make your move and develop a strategy," Cook said. The November 14th NCAA District Championships will conclude the cross country season. "We're looking at that race as redemption, to prove to ourselves that we can run as a team," Garber said. "The race will be mostly for ourselves." "There will be some very big guns there, and we won't be worrying about the team standings," Rossner added. After the November 14 competition, the team will turn its attention to the indoor track season. "The team got to know each other, supported each other, and learned how to depend on each other," Cook said of her almost-completed rookie season. "It's been a great experience athletically and friendship-wise also."