Fifth for W. Track at Heps

Despite being fueled by many outstanding individual performances, the Penn women's track team placed fifth among the eight Ivy League teams and Navy this past weekend at the highly competitive Heptagonal Championships in Ithaca, N.Y. The Quakers, who took third last year, finished with 44 points. Although Penn finished behind Brown, Princeton, Harvard and Cornell, the meet was not without its bright spots for the Quakers. "Realistically, we were looking at about fourth place, scoring the meet ahead of time with past performances," senior Mandy Bennet said. "We were hoping some things could go our way and we could end up third, but obviously that didn't happen." "We did our very, very best," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "We got terrific, terrific effort.? Some things just didn't go right and we paid for it as a team. But we had some truly outstanding performances." Sophomore Ami Desai won the pole vault, a first-time exhibition event at Heps. Eleven Quakers finished sixth or above to score and seven of them qualified for this weekend's ECACs in Boston, where they will have a chance to compete for a chance at nationals in Indianapolis. Another impressive performance came from Quakers captain Rita Garber, who finished third in the 3,000 meters and fourth in the 5,000 meters, qualifying for ECACs in both events. It was the first time that Garber, a participant in the 1998 NCAA cross-country nationals, had ever scored at Heps or qualified for ECACs. "I was pretty happy," the senior said. "It was a gamble for me to double up [in both the 5,000 and the 3,000]. Last year I did it, and I missed scoring in both events. But this year, it paid off and I actually scored." Garber wasn't the only Quaker with an impressive running performance this weekend. Jessica Mitchell came in a close third in a hotly contested 800-meter race. Mitchell finished in 2:12.36 -- less than a second behind both the first and second place finishers -- to qualify for the ECACs. "Jessica Mitchell had a fantastic race," Tenisci said. "Right at the tape, the Princeton girls came up and got lucky. She led for two laps against some of the finest half-milers in the country." Sophomore sprinter Ja Juan Gair also finished in third place by the slimmest of margins. She recorded a personal record in the 55-meter hurdles, finishing 7/100ths of a second out of first with a time of 8.13 seconds. The good news for Gair was that she also qualified for the ECACs. "I was happy with my PR but I wasn't happy with my place overall," Gair said. "I wanted to improve over last year. I felt like I could've pushed a little harder at the end." Gair's classmate, sophomore Bassey Adjah, qualified for ECACs with a personal record in the heptathlon to claim sixth place. The other Quakers making the trip to Boston will be junior Ruthie Neuhaus, who placed third in the triple jump' Christyna Faulkner, who placed two spots behind Gair in the 55-meter hurdles' and senior shot-putter Luana Botelho, who finished in third. Botelho's throwing companion, Bennet, had her best performance of the year en route to a fifth-place finish in the weight throw. "I was really happy with my consistency," Bennet said. "Every throw was over 50 feet and I've never done that before during my career here." While Bennet was not happy with her place, the competition from the rest of the Ivy field was intense. "I was a little disappointed," Garber said. "A lot of good things did happen this weekend, but I think as a team we're better than that. Hopefully we can pull it together for [the] outdoor [season]. It was really a tough competition. Everybody rose to the occasion across the league this weekend."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.