M. X-C gets unexpected break after several schedule revisals

The beginning of the Penn men's cross country schedule was supposed to look like this:

Sept. 8: Fordham Invite.

Sept. 15: Delaware Invite.

Sept. 22 Philly Classic.

The Quakers were supposed to have three races before the last week in September.

But this is the way that early schedule looks now:

Sept. 8: Fordham Invite.

Sept. 29 Philly Classic.

Instead of three straight racing weekends, Penn has three straight raceless weeks.

"This is good," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "I don't know how many times we've been just starting to gel and we've had to back down because of one race or another."

Now the Quakers have three solid weeks of training workouts like the one they would have done had tragedy not struck yesterday -- 10 miles at a sub-six-minute mile pace (under an hour).

Yes, it'll be difficult. But it'll also be good preparation for Heps, which take place the last weekend of October.

"This is the hardest part of the season for us," Penn senior Matt Gioffre said.

But Powell didn't originally intend for it to be quite so hard. He did pull Penn out of the Delaware Invitational, but he was not responsible for the date shifting of the Philly Classic. Host team La Salle could not secure the park for Sept. 22, so the Explorers had to reschedule for the following week.

Powell isn't complaining. With a team as young as his, the more pre-Heps training, the better.

Thirteen of Penn's 23 runners are freshmen -- including six of the Quakers' top eight in Saturday's Fordham Invitational.

The only Penn upperclassmen in the top nine were Gioffre and fellow senior Matt Caporaletti.

And the only other Quakers upperclassmen are senior Anthony Ragucci and juniors Anthony Sager, Kevin Patric and Kevin Galloway.

Gioffre, Ragucci and Sager are expected to comprise the Quakers' lead pack -- at least during the early part of the season.

"I think there's a couple of these young guys who are going to give [Gioffre, Ragucci and Sager] a good time," Powell said.

Among those youngsters expected to contribute are Dustin Lieb (Penn's top finisher in Fordham), Matt Van Antwerp (fourth), Dan Treglia (fifth) and Nolan Tully (sixth).

Freshmen Stephen Harris, Scott Sebens and Josh Joseph (seventh through ninth at Fordham) might also make splashes later, perhaps at Heps.

Penn hopes to improve upon its seventh-place finish in Heps a year ago. Ragucci (15th) and Gioffre (25th) are the top returning Quakers from that meet. Between them, they have competed in six cross country Heptagonal Championships.

Penn's freshmen, meanwhile, have competed in just one cross country race to date.

"I don't think anyone knows what to expect so far," Sager said prior to the Fordham meet.

And after a race that was mostly a glorified workout on Saturday, the Quakers still don't know exactly what to expect.

"I think the freshmen are going to be really good," Powell said. "When they finished, they weren't all doubled up in pain. They said to me, `Hey, what's next?'"

The answer to that question?

Right now, it's 2 1/2 weeks of practice.

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