W. X-C stunned by last-place Heps finish

No tragedy struck the Penn women's cross country team on Friday. No freak injuries prevented the runners from performing well at Heptagonal Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. It wasn't that anything went terribly wrong; it was just that nothing went right. In a field that included two nationally ranked teams, the Quakers finished ninth -- last -- for the second consecutive year with a team score of 242. The Quakers were nine points behind Harvard. Yale took the title with a score of 47 points, the Elis' first title since 1989. Penn distance coach Cricket Batz-Shaklee was disappointed with the performance. "We are not a last-place team," Batz-Shaklee said. "I was confident we would at least beat Harvard, with a shot to beat Princeton." The race was won for the second straight year by Brown's Sara Tindall, who finished in 17 minutes and 32 seconds, four seconds in front of teammate Kim Thalmann. Penn freshman Abbi Gleeson finished 39th in the five-kilometer race with a time of 18:55.6. Junior Sam Desposito finished two places behind in 18:57.3. "Abbi Gleeson has been coming and coming on all season," Batz-Shaklee said. Kristen Koch finished a disappointing 50th place with a time of 19:09.8. Despite Friday's performance, the Red and Blue are not disappointed with their season. "We ran 100 percent better than last year," Batz-Shaklee said. "The entire league just got stronger from last year." The Quakers finished in the top three in four races this year, winning the Delaware Invitational and the Rutgers Invitational. Before those wins, their last victory was in 1997. The coaches were not even entirely disappointed with the performance at Heps. "We were prepared physically," Batz-Shaklee said. "We just weren't prepared for this competition." The Quakers will have another chance to race against very strong competition when they travel to NCAA Region II District Championships on Saturday, November 11. The race is at Penn State. Seven runners can compete in Districts, but Batz-Shaklee is unsure of what the coaches will do. "I'm going to determine the team very soon," Batz-Shaklee said. "We only want to take people who really, really want to compete." For the Quakers, Heps was just a case of a bad performance coming at the worst time. The team is very young, with many freshmen running in college for the first time, and many running cross country for the first time ever. The Quakers, many of whom would not comment on their performance this weekend, are disappointed with their finishes. Penn doesn't seem willing to be complacent with their current status as doormat of the Ivy League.

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