W. Track dominates the competition at Cornell Invitational

Utter domination. These are the two words that come to mind in describing the performance of the Penn women's track team at Saturday's Cornell Invitational. The Quakers travelled to Ithaca, N.Y., and proceeded to outrun, outjump and outthrow nearly everyone else at the meet. "It was just a fantastic meet," assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "I think we're on track now, if we can keep this up at Boston, and then at Princeton, we should be on track for the championship." The Quakers scored points in every event in which they were entered. The Red and Blue scored 90.25 overall points, handily defeating their hosts. Cornell finished a distant second with 66 total points, while St. Joseph's and Fordham brought up the rear with 24 points and 13.75 points, respectively. The 55-meter high hurdles was a particularly strong event for the Quakers as Penn -- led by sophomore JaJuan Gair -- took the top three spots. "I was very happy, much happier, with my time," said Gair of the 8.21 seconds she ran to claim her first hurdles victory of the year. "We? were the most confident we've been. I just hope we can carry this excitement and momentum on to Boston, Princeton and the Heps." Gair, after winning the hurdles, also placed second in the Quakers' sweep of the top three spots in the 55-meter dash. Junior Christyna Faulkner, who finished second behind Gair in the hurdles, won the 55-meter dash. The Quakers weren't done scoring points in bunches, though. Led by senior Vicki Moore and junior Serena Poole, they took the top three spots in the 400-meter dash. Moore also won the 200-meter dash, just beating fellow Quaker Shana McDonald-Black. Penn's success continued in the 800, as senior Jessica Mitchell grabbed first. "In the sprinting and technical events, we just really dominated," Tenisci said. Senior Luana Botelho spearheaded the Quakers' attack on the technical events with her victory in the shot put. Sophomore pole-vaulter Ami Desai posted another first for Penn, besting her closest challenger by 2 1/2 feet. The Quakers capped off Saturday's technical masterpiece in the long jump, where sophomore Bassey Adjah obliterated the competition and took home all the points. Penn continued to throw well, claiming second through fourth in the weight event. Senior Mandy Bennett -- who finished fifth in the shot put -- led the Quakers in the weight throw despite an injury that sidelined her in practice all week. "I sprained my ankle last Sunday," the senior thrower said. "I hadn't thrown in practice all week, so I was pretty happy with it." But Bennett hasn't been entirely happy with her season. "I'm not where I was planning on being at all," Bennett said. "It's part injury, and part I don't know what, but I got the feeling this weekend that I was on the right track and I'm on the verge of breaking through." Another gutsy performance was turned in by star distance runner and team captain, senior Rita Garber. Garber, who according to Tenisci was "sick all week," still managed to place second in the 5,000 meters. "I had the flu earlier in the week and took a couple days off. I had a strong opponent who would be tough to beat under any circumstances, though," said Garber, who finished seven seconds behind Cornell's Emily Germano. "I stayed with her, but I just didn't have the extra kick at the end." Garber also managed to contribute by running the mile leg of the distance medley relay, which the Quakers also won. Penn completed its sweep of relay events by winning the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:55.13, the team's best time of the year. "We were so happy with the win because Cornell is one of our big rivals," Garber said. "It's another confidence booster because we know we'll face them at Heps."