W. Track stumbles to last-place Heps finish

Bassey Adjah and Ruthie Neuhaus accounted for 13 of the Quakers' 17 points in the meet at Dartmouth. In its most crucial meet of the indoor season, the youth and inexperience of the Penn women's track team showed in a disappointing ninth-place finish at the Heptagonal Championships. The Quakers finished dead last in the field that was comprised of all eight Ivies as well as Navy. In the meet, held in Hanover, N.H., Penn was only able to muster 17 points in the 16-event competition that awarded points for placing sixth or higher. Harvard won the meet with a total score of 109. "We have never been in this position before and it is really tough to justify," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "Every team experiences this sort of thing at some point, so we just need to deal with it." Penn received 13 of its total 17 points courtesy of its most experienced athletes -- junior Bassey Adjah and senior Ruthie Neuhaus. Adjah recorded a distance of 18'10.75" in taking third-place in the long jump and picking up six points. Adjah picked up one more point with her sixth-place finish in the 55-meter hurdles. Neuhaus recorded a personal record of 39'6" in the triple jump, besting her former mark of 39'4.5". Her efforts were good enough for third place and six team points. "This meet was obviously very tough for us as a team, but we did have some girls do well," Tenisci said. "Bassey was incredible in the long jump and Ruthie was competitive against a very difficult field in the triple jump." Sophomore Liz Wittels earned Penn two points by finishing fifth in the pole vault with a height of 11'3.5". Junior Ami Desai finished up two spots behind Wittels with a distance of 10'9.5". Penn also received a point from junior Qianna Snooks' sixth-place finish in the 400-meter run with a time of 58.55. The final Quakers point came courtesy of a sixth-place finish in the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:56.70. "It really seemed like most of the other teams had peaked already and we are still coming along," Snooks said. "We are just getting started with our season and are looking forward to the outdoor season." Clearly, Penn's youth and lack of much experience played a role in last weekend's showing. The freshmen-laden Quakers just could not produce nearly enough top-six finishes to mount much of a challenge. Penn, which finished up 92 points behind champion Harvard, showed a major lack of depth. With only six scorers and only 13 top-10 finishes, the young Penn squad was clearly not yet ready for the fierce competition of Heps. "The league as a whole has matured a lot but we are really young," Tenisci said. "Very few freshmen have really contributed in the league this year. Not many freshmen can perform well because it is just so overwhelming against all these talented people." For most of the Penn squad, last weekend's competition was the final meet of the indoor season. Desai, Wittels, Adjah, junior Melissa MacIntyre and Neuhaus, however, will have at least one more meet -- the ECAC championships this weekend in Boston. "We just can't focus on last weekend too much because we had to go through this type of learning experience," Tenisci said. "It isn't easy or comfortable, but I think a lot of the girls really grew up and matured in this meet. Outdoors should be better and we will definitely be better next year."

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