W. Track scratches Big Red for invite

The Penn women's track team will head to Lewisburg, Pa. this weekend to compete in Bucknell's Winter Classic. The Quakers were originally scheduled to be at Cornell, but Penn assistant coach Tony Tenisci sees the change in plans as a necessary step in the Quakers' preparation and growth as a team. "We felt that we needed a change from Cornell," Tenisci said. "We'd already been there and we didn't want to go all that way up to that facility again. We felt that it would be nice to see different schools, to have different opportunities to compete our kids in different environments." The Quakers are coming off a meet at Princeton last weekend, where they came in second behind Penn State but ahead of the arch-rival Tigers. With a mark of 19'4.5" in the long jump at the Princeton meet, senior Bassey Adjah destroyed the Red and Blue's 17-year-old record of 19'4.25" set by future Olympian Joan PhengLaOr in 1984. "I didn't start off doing so well," Adjah said. "My steps had been off ever since we came back from Christmas vacation. Once I got my steps, I was able to concentrate on my actual jumping. "It was a long time coming." Also at Princeton, junior Samantha Desposito ran a personal best 5:06 in the mile, putting her in second place in the event. "My goal is basically to break 5:00 before the end of the season," Desposito said. "That's been my goal for a long time, but this is the first season it's been feasible." When asked about the upcoming meet, Tenisci was optimistic. "It's going to be a big invitational," Tenisci said. "They've assured us that it's going to be a high quality meet with a lot of good schools. That's what we're trying to gear up for, a good quality meet where we can get some good seed times." As usual, the focus is on preparing for the Heptagonal Championships in Boston, which is two weeks away. The team is also focused on trying to maintain its health. "Our biggest enemies right now are illnesses," Tenisci said. "A lot of people are sick with flu and different colds and problems like that. "We're trying to keep everybody healthy and just make sure that everybody stays on track with what they're doing."

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