W.X-C gets scorched at Heps

Meredith Rossner was the only Penn runner to finish in the top 50 as the Quakers finished last. Last Friday, the Penn women's cross-country team headed to the Bronx and competed in its most important tournament, the Heptagonal Championships. The Quakers struggled as a team, finishing in last place in the nine-team field, which included all eight Ivies and Navy. The young Penn squad had difficulty handling the unfriendly terrain of the Van Cortlandt Park course. The Quakers finished with 285 points, well behind champion Brown (36 points) and not far from the maximum possible score of 305. The Quakers were dealt a harsh blow two days before the meet when they learned that Stephanie Bell, one of their top runners, would be out due to respiratory problems. This meant that Meredith Rossner, who finished 49th, was the only Penn runner competing at Heps who was in the squad's preseason top five. Fielding such a young squad, expectations for Penn were not extremely high entering the race. "Even with Stephanie Bell we would've been last," Penn assistant coach Cricket Batz-Shaklee said. "But it definitely didn't help our team to lose another critical member." Brown was able to win the race by placing four runners in the top 10. All seven of Brown's runners finished in the top 20, an amazing feat considering that Penn placed just one runner, Rossner, in the top 50. The Quakers have been beleaguered by injuries all year long. The team also suffered from losing two top runners, Neha Amin and Susie Cook, who quit the squad early in the season. The one bright spot for Penn had to be the relatively strong performance by Rossner. She finished the five-kilometer course in 19 minutes and 25 seconds. Rossner is the only Penn runner who will advance to compete in the NCAA District II Championships in two weeks. That race is a qualifier for the national championships on November 22. "I think Meredith is really ready to run well," Batz-Shaklee said "It is extremely hard to qualify as an individual but Meredith should definitely gain some experience for next year." For all the Penn runners except Rossner, the Heps were the final race of the season. "No one wants to end their season on a down note like this," Batz-Shaklee said. "I think it is important that you at least try to compete." The Penn squad, which featured no seniors, one junior, two sophomores and four freshmen, went into the race as big underdogs. The team had discussed this and agreed that it was important to finish the season off with a solid effort. Batz-Shaklee doesn't believe that the effort was there. "Even though we would have been last place, we should have at least as a team competed with pride and competed with the idea of finishing up well for each person and for their teammates," she said. "I think they just gave up." The difficult Van Cortlandt course is one of the toughest the Quakers have had to run on all year. It features a grueling, narrow uphill section which is both physically and mentally exhausting for a runner. Hopefully for Penn, the squad learned something from its performance at Heps. "We are a very young team," Batz-Shaklee said. "But this will never be repeated." Because all of the runners except Rossner have finished their season, much of the team's focus shifts now to preparing for the indoor season. "Most of the team needs a mental and physical break," Batz-Shaklee said. "Then they can start training for the indoor season."

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