MacMillan takes second place

This is Sean MacMillan's final cross country season in a Penn uniform, and he's running like it. In his first race of 1999, the Penn senior captain captured second-place at the Naval Academy Invitational. His time of twenty-four minutes, 49 seconds was eight seconds off the lead and 36 ticks better than the time he posted when he last raced at Annapolis. Penn was only able to secure a split at this past Saturday's tri-meet, however. They dispensed with Mount St. Mary's 19-42, but fell to Navy 23-32. "It was disappointing not to get the win but there are some positives," MacMillan said. "We realize that a lot of our guys are in pretty good shape and we haven't really been working too hard yet.? Some guys really came to race this weekend." MacMillan averaged 4:59 per mile, trailing only Navy's Aaron Nichols. He was one of four Penn trail junkies to finish in the top 10. Sophomore Matt Gioffre was sixth (25:24), senior Mark Granshaw was eighth (25:34) and junior Bryan Kovalsky was ninth (25:36). "A lot of our guys did well," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "[It] showed that we have what it takes to be a good team but that we're not a good team yet." Saturday marked a key race for Gioffre. He ran a personal best and demonstrated the kind of poise that he will need if he wants to compete with the elite of the Heptagonal conference. "I ran a PR," Gioffre said. "I didn't realize that I was going to be the second runner, but I was glad I kept my head about me." One of the principal reasons for the Penn split was its inability to keep a pack of runners together. "We didn't run as a team, which is something I somewhat take the blame for," MacMillan said. "If we kept together longer, we might have had a better team score." Running as a team is an integral component of cross country success but it is especially significant against Navy. The Midshipmen are notorious for taking a race out at a breakneck pace and then holding on for a win. "A couple of our frontrunners strung out too fast and when Navy made a big surge at about two or three miles, it was something that our younger guys just weren't ready for," Powell said. Navy, unlike any of its other Heptagonal competitors, begins working out in very early July. The tracksters from the service academy, therefore, have an early leg up on their Ivy foes. "They're always real good at this time," Powell said. "It's a good awakening early in the season that gets us out of any false sense of security." Another major cause behind Penn's bridesmaid status was the absence of senior captain Scott Clayton, who would have added another dimension to the Penn arsenal by running alongside MacMillan from the start. "I'm very confident that we can beat this team with Scott Clayton," Gioffre said. "As we get stronger, drop our mileage and get into better racing shape, we'll roll over them."

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