W. Track counting on seniors

The Penn women's track team is a veteran squad still searching for more consistency. With the rain-shortened Quaker Invitational behind them, the Penn women's track team is looking for big performances out of its seniors this outdoor season. After finishing a disappointing fifth at Heps during the indoor season -- two notches down from last year's third-place finish -- the team is hoping that it will be able to improve its performances outdoors. With 13 seniors on the 33-member traveling squad, the Quakers will rely heavily on the experience of the Class of '99 to help them improve on last year's fifth-place finish in the outdoor Heps. "I would like to see my seniors end on an upbeat note, running their very best," Penn coach Betty Costanza said. "This senior class is very strong. They have been instrumental in keeping this team afloat, but they have a lot on their plate this season." One senior captain who will be heavily relied on is Jessica Mitchell, who will be looking to build on her third-place time of 2:12.36 in the 800 meters at indoor Heps. While the Quakers have four captains in seniors Shana McDonald-Black, Luana Botelho, Rita Garber and Mitchell, they are still looking for someone to become the clear-cut leader of this team. It will not be enough for the seniors to simply turn in good results on the track during their final season donning the Red and Blue. They are being counted on to set an example that the rest of the Quakers can follow. "Last year's team stepped up, took the bull by the horns and said, 'This is where we are going,'" Costanza said. "This year's team is still waiting for someone to do that. "I don't think that we have as much depth as we had last year. We are not running to where we were last year at this time." Garber -- one senior who is peaking -- shattered her personal best in the 3,000-meter run by five seconds at the ECAC Championships in February on her way to being named to the All-East team. Mitchell joined Garber on the All-East team after capturing fifth at the ECACs in the 800-meter race. This followed up a third-place finish at the indoor Heps in the same race -- less than one second out of first place. In addition to the senior class, the Quakers are relying on sophomores JaJuan Gair, Bassey Adjah and Amy Nichols, as well as junior jumper Ruthie Neuhaus, to play significant roles on this team. Adjah is hoping to once again shatter her personal record in the pentathlon, which she fell just short of breaking at the ECACs. Her eighth-place performance made her the third Quaker named to the All-East team. She had set her personal record just two weeks earlier at the indoor Heps. Fellow sophomore Gair, a sprinter, will also be looking to improve on the personal record she set at the indoor Heps in the 55-meter hurdles. Her ability to make up the seven-hundredths of a second that kept her out of first at Heps could have a major impact on Penn's season. According to Costanza, consistency will be a major concern in Penn's outdoor season. It has not been one of the Quakers' strengths thus far -- neither in practice nor competition -- and their ability to turn this around may be what determines the team's fate. "It's not been a disappointment. I just think that it could be better," Costanza said. "The only way to be successful is to be consistent and we are not having that right now. We are having some, but others are not stepping up to where they should be in their careers. "There is too much variation in our performance, and that is not good when you are getting ready for competition." Fortunately, the Quakers have been working hard on trying to remedy some of these problems recently in practice. Although torrential downpours hindered Penn's attempt to show some improvement in the season-opening Quaker Invitational, the team has taken active steps to ensure optimal results when it matters most. "One of our main problems is getting out of our comfort zone. One of the ways we go about getting out of that problem is by running slightly increased distances during the tougher workouts," McDonald-Black said. "I'd run 300, as opposed to 200 which I run in meets. It's that same kind of mentality for the other events." The Quakers feel that the move to outdoor events will greatly improve the team because it will enable them to display a wider variety of their talent. The javelin, discus and 4x100-meter relay are all added to the list of events for the spring after being excluded during the indoor season. According to senior Victoria Moore, these are all strengths that should add up to more Quakers points. "Our strengths are the field events and technical areas. They have a lot more depth," Moore said. "Luana Botelho breaks records all the time. She has the record for breaking records, and Amy Nichols broke the school discus record last year." Penn is hoping to turn its somewhat underachieving results during the indoor season into a positive. The seniors know that this is the final season they have to prove themselves. As a result, the team believes that it might just sneak up on a few unsuspecting opponents in the coming weeks. "The key is staying focused on our goals that we want to achieve collectively. Staying strong by lifting and having fun with it and having a positive attitude this season," Moore said. "We cannot get too worked up or listen to mental midgets -- those are confidence shakers." Although this team is still in search of a clear-cut identity with four weeks to go until the Penn Relays, Costanza is hoping that the seniors can put everything on hold for the time being and end their careers with a bang.