W. Track defeats Tigers

The Penn women's track team came away from this weekend's dual meet at Princeton with a clear sense of where they stood in the Ivy League pack. Though the Quakers were unable to compete with Penn State, who won the meet, the Red and Blue achieved what they set out to do at Jadwin Gymnasium. "Our main objective was to compete with our Ivy rival," Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci said. "And we did just that and had some incredible performances along the way." In the hotly contested meet, Penn finished with 92 points, 10 ahead of Princeton. Penn State had 136 points. Leading the way for the Quakers was senior Bassey Adjah, whom Tenisci called a "bright shining star that day." Adjah finished second, behind only runners from Penn State, in the 4x400-meter relay and the 55 hurdles. Her time of 8.27 seconds in the hurdles was one-hundredth of a second ahead of teammate JaJuan Gair, who took third. Adjah's biggest performance, however, came in the long jump, where her mark of 19'4.5" shattered a school record that had stood for 17 years. Former Penn standout and 1984 Olympian Joan PhengLaOr's previous mark of 19'4.25" was one of Penn's longest-standing records. "She took that record out of the books, which I think was long overdue," Tenisci said. In addition to Adjah's record-breaking day, Penn had a number of competitors who turned in personal bests at the Princeton meet. Junior Samantha Desposito's 5:06 mile was a personal record and good enough for second place. Sophomore Meredith Bunche broke her own personal best from last weekend with a 40'3/4" triple jump. Freshman Tonia Sabino threw a personal best 13.79 meters with the 20-pound weight, good enough for third. Senior Yinka Orafidiya finished second in the weight and third in the shot. Princeton, which was plagued by injuries, was still able to put up a good fight. "We had a bunch of people with injuries," Princeton high jumper Becca Desman said, "so we were operating with not everybody there." Despite the depleted Princeton squad, the victory was more than just pyrrhic for Penn, as it gives the team confidence heading into the Heptagonal Championships, which will be held February 24-25 in Boston. At Heps, Penn will get a chance to face the Tigers again. "A win is a win is a win." Tenisci said of the Quakers victory. "It's always sweet to go into Jadwin and spank 'em." The lone negative from the weekend was the minor hamstring injury suffered by co-captain JaJuan Gair. After placing third in the hurdles, Gair hopped back on the track for the 55 dash. She pulled up lame at the finish line, and early tests shed no light on the severity of the pull. Tenisci hopes his star will be back in form for next weekend's meet at Cornell. "We're not sure what the long-term prognosis is," Tenisci said. "But [Gair] had a great meet for us and we hope to see more of that."

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