Youthful M. X-C looking to surprise

The Penn men's cross country team is ready to take on its arch-rivals this weekend in New York City in the season's biggest race -- the Heptagonal Championships. All of the Ivy League schools, as well as Navy, will compete on the Van Cortlandt course in the Bronx tomorrow.

Last year, Penn finished seventh at the race. This year, the Quakers raced on this course early on in the season as a sort of training run to prepare for Heps and to introduce the freshmen -- who make up half of this year's team -- to the course.

"There's a little bit of everything [in that course]," Penn captain Matt Gioffre said. "It's like every cross country course rolled into one. We wanted to get the course in our minds, because it's so much easier to run something you are familiar with."

The Quakers' relative youth gives them a lot of enthusiasm and excitement for the challenge.

"We are a young team, and not much is expected of us, so we're going out to try to surprise a few people," Penn freshman Josh Joseph said. "I think that we are really good and we can place pretty high."

The freshmen faced a tough transition this season from the five-kilometer high school courses to the significantly longer five-mile college course. But after several races and countless practices, they have become accustomed to the rigors of collegiate competition.

Since the beginning of the season, the frosh have worked not only on endurance for the longer course, but also on strategies like running in packs.

"We've gotten used to the racing now, and we've got a pretty close pack and we've gotten ourselves into really good shape," Joseph said. "But I'm still a little nervous. This is my first time in a collegiate race of this magnitude."

While the team's youth may count against them, they don't seem particularly worried.

"Inexperience might cause a problem," Gioffre said. "If anything, this will be a learning experience. It's more intense than anything they've experienced in high school, but they'll figure it out.... They're real talented."

The Quakers face serious competition in this race, but reputation is an additional factor.

"For us, it's the most important race of the year," Gioffre said. "Heps is running against our peers, so it's a bit of a pride thing."

The Quakers are confident that they are in good shape both mentally and physically, so they are in great spirits.

"We're all excited," Gioffre said. "Coach [Powell] has given us race tactics, we have a specific plan of attack of how we are going to run this race, and if we execute that, we should do fine."

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