The Tony Tenisci era got off to a sluggish start over the weekend.
Taking over for former coach Betty Costanza, the new head man guided the Penn women's track and field team to a disappointing fourth-place finish at the Delaware Invitational with 66 points.
"I think [Tenisci] handled it very well," Penn junior Crystal Marsh said. "He tried to encourage us, and tried to get us to stay positive with our head coach leaving."
Running away with the contest was Maryland with 217 points. Duke and Navy, second and third in the field of seven, had 164 points and 126 points, respectively.
Penn's best individual performers were freshman Elaina Lord in the 3000 meter run, who took third with a time of 10:33.02, and junior Meghan Moran, who also nabbed third with a distance of 11.10 meters in the triple jump.
Fourth-place finishes belonged to freshman Anna-Marie Allander in the 800 meter run, sophomore Grace Maloney in the high jump, junior Kai Ivory in the shot put and sophomore Caroline Rebello in the pole vault.
"I'd say it was a decent race for the beginning of the season," Allander said. "I hadn't really done any speed work, so I was happy with my time."
The Quakers did have a few bright spots, however.
The pole vault showed its depth in placing three vaulters in the top eight. In addition to Rebello's fourth-place finish, freshman Samantha Crook and sophomore Ingrid Gustafson placed sixth and eighth with heights of 3.15 and 3.0 meters, respectively.
The throwers fared similarly as sophomore Tonia Sabino and junior Christine Royers finished sixth and seventh in the weight throw to complement Ivory's fourth-place showing in the shot put.
The Quakers relay teams mirrored their individual counterparts, finishing third in the 4x800 meter relay in a time of 9:54.21 and fourth in the 4x400 meter relay, crossing the line at 4:12.04.
After the lackluster meet, Penn heads to the Cornell Invitational this Saturday to tangle with St. Joe's, Buffalo and the host Big Red.
"We can definitely beat Cornell," Marsh said. "We'll be paying the most attention to them since we'll be going against them at Heptagonals."
Allander viewed the meet as more of a stepping stone towards the end of the season.
"We're just looking to improve and taking it as another step towards preparing for the Heptagonal Championships," she said.
Still, though the Quakers' focus seems exclusively on competition and the weekend ahead, they are slow to forget Costanza and everything she did for them in her 26 years with the program.
"We just want to put in good showings to keep her legacy going," Allander said.
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