W. Track is sore but strong

Ask anyone on the Penn women's track team, and they'll tell you that returning to that first week of practice after a relatively relaxing winter break just plain hurts. They'll also tell you, though, that the stiff joints and achy muscles they endured from the first week back to the track in 2001 did little to slow them down in their first indoor meet of the new year. In Saturday's Delaware Invitational the Quakers -- competing for the first time since December 9 -- looked like they hadn't missed a day on the track, as they finished in second place behind a strong Maryland team. "Everyone was really sore after the first week of practice, but we decided to train right through that [Delaware] meet," Penn pole vaulter Liz Wittels said. "Everything considered, everyone did really well." Two Quakers earned first-place finishes in the meet, which also included teams from Navy, Rider and host Delaware, while a pair of others tallied three second-place finishes for the Red and Blue. In all, Penn athletes placed in the top three a total of 16 times in the 17-event meet -- good enough to beat ECAC rival and third-place finisher Navy by 15.5 points. "It's always good to beat a future enemy," Penn co-captain Jajuan Gair said. Gair, a senior, won the 60-meter hurdles by just .03 seconds to finish with a time of 8.90 seconds. She had recorded the top mark in the preliminary heats with an 8.96-second sprint. "I felt good," said Gair, who commented that this was the first time in her career that the team had returned from winter break with just one week before its first meet. "It was a good race considering the factors." Mercy Okoye, the Quakers' other first-place finisher, easily won the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:04.85. Penn freshman Caitlin Driscoll also gave an impressive showing in the five-lap race. The North Falmouth, Mass., native stayed on Okoye's heels until the senior pulled away on lap four, then outkicked her Maryland opponent to finish second. Off the track and in the throwing rings, Quakers senior Yinka Orafidiya nabbed second place in both the shot put and the weight throw with marks of 12.95 meters and 6.08 meters, respectively. Maryland athletes won both of those events.

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