Clayton, MacMillan lead M.X-C at IC4As

The Quakers finished a solid fourth place out of 13 teams but trailed district rivals Duke and Princeton. Faster than usual. But not quite fast enough. Despite unusually fast times on a not-so-fast course, the Penn men's cross country team could not overcome district rivals Duke and Princeton or upstart Penn State at last Friday's IC4A meet at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The Quakers finished fourth out of thirteen teams with 93 points, behind Penn State (79), Duke (73) and Princeton, which won the meet with a total of 70 points. Penn seniors Sean MacMillan and Scott Clayton led the pack for the Quakers, placing fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 24:47 and 24:49 for the five-mile course. Sophomore Matt Gioffre was not worried about the loss to Princeton, whom Penn will face again at Heptagonals and at the district meet. "It was very close -- 23 points is not that much in a large meet. We still have a chance to beat Princeton," Gioffre said. "Really, we've just got to stay close. Our plan is not to beat Princeton, it's to make it to nationals." However, beating the Tigers and Blue Devils could have provided an added boost towards qualifying for Nationals. "We can't just brush it off. It was an opportunity to gain a few points towards an at-large bid," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "But we beat Villanova, who's been moving up in the pre-National rankings, so that'll help." According to Gioffre, who finished 20th at 25:18, a tighter pack will make all the difference in upcoming meets. "The key is the [Nos.] 3, 4, 5 guys -- myself, Bryan Kovalsky and Mark Granshaw," said Gioffre, who finished eight places and 24 seconds ahead of Kovalsky and 16 places and 30 seconds ahead of Granshaw. "We have to run faster and closer together. When you've got your top two guys combining for only nine points, [the 3-4-5 are] really where the meet's won and lost. "If we all could have run three, five seconds faster, it could have been a very different meet." On the bright side, a combination of favorable weather and sheer willfulness made for remarkably fast times. "It's not even that fast a course," Powell said. "It was just a beautiful day, and there were four or five teams who thought they had a chance of winning, and so it turned into an extremely fast race. "Sean and Scott ran the fourth and fifth fastest times ever by Penn athletes on that course, and that course has been around since 1912. Matt Gioffre also ran one of the fastest ever, and he's only a sophomore." The Quakers return to competition on Friday, October 29, at the Heptagonal meet, which is also held at Van Cortlandt Park.