Good showing for W. Track at Raleigh Relays

Although the meet was not scored, many Quakers did well against stellar competition down South. Despite the fact that many of their competitors counted them out, that did not stop the members of the Penn women's track team from having a surprisingly impressive performance as they competed against some of the best track programs in the nation at the Raleigh Relays this past weekend. Having teams such as Virginia Tech, N.C. State and North Carolina as competitors is enough to make any Ivy League team a little nervous. Overall, though, the Red and Blue gave a solid performance in many different categories. Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci referred to the meet as "the Penn Relays of the South" and felt that, "The kids handled themselves very well in a meet with such high caliber teams." The Quakers had several standout finishes including a seventh-place finish in the triple jump(39'6.5") by Ruthie Neuhaus, a third-place finish in the pole vault by Liz Wittels, an 11th-place finish by Julie Siebert-Johnson in the javelin and a sixth place finish by the Penn 4x800 relay team(9:10.02). Senior captain Ruthie Neuhaus was pleased by her fellow Quakers' performances, as well as her own. "As a team, we did well. We stepped up overall and that is going to give us a good base for the meets to come," Neuhaus said. "Individually, I'm also happy because I have been jumping consistently well and that's important to me." Siebert-Johnson -- who thus far has had a stellar season, placing first last week at Penn's own Quaker Invitational -- did not feel she performed as well she wanted to with her 11th-place finish, but she was also competing against athletes who had already graduated college. The Raleigh Relays also allows athletes who do not attend college to participate. With some of these athletes using this meet as practice for the Summer Olympics in Sydney, they unquestionably had an advantage over some of the less-experienced intercollegiate competitors. Siebert-Johnson admitted that it was "definitely intimidating," but that her disappointing finish has motivated her to gear up for her next meet. With a time of 9:10.02, the 4x800 relay team proved that Penn has the talent and depth to compete well not only at the Raleigh Relays, but more importantly, in the Ivy League. Sophomore Samantha Desposito, a member of the relay team, was "excited by the good competition" in the race. More importantly though, Desposito is just as excited to race against other Ivies so that she can establish where Penn will stand in its own league. Up next for the Quakers is just that. The University of Pennsylvania Invitational will be held this Saturday. The meet will allow the team to get a feel for where they stand in the Ivy League, as they will face Cornell and Princeton. According to Tenisci, from here on in, "every meet is very important," especially with conference competition looming in the distance.