A Cup of Cofie: A look at Penn's glorified star

Motivated. Religious. Committed. Sympathetic. All of these words aptly describe senior Jeraldine Cofie, the Penn women's track team's co-captain.

Despite a career laden with injuries -- from a pulled hamstring her freshman year to getting her appendix removed last year -- Cofie has clung to a positive attitude and her faith to keep her going.

"Most people would have quit a long time ago," Cofie said. "Resting on God and Jesus Christ has helped me get through."

"Get through" is a gross understatement of her list of accomplishments both on and off the track. Cofie was a finalist in the 2000 Outdoor Heptagonal Championships in the 400m with a time of 58.44, a member of the 2000 4x400 Heps Championship team.

She began the 2001 Indoor season running the 500m in 1:17.65 and the 400m in 58.19, but was halted by injury.

This past weekend Cofie won the 400m race against Cornell, the Indoor Heptagonal champions, with a time of 56.53 seconds. The time not only granted Cofie a victory but is sending her to England to compete in the ECACs in June. It also put her in fourth place for Penn's all-time outdoor records list for the 400m.

Not too shabby for someone whose track career started in elementary school physical education.

Jeraldine, like all other elementary school students, had to run for a physical fitness test. After running the mile her gym teachers told her that she was going to grow up to be a "track star one day." From that point on, she decided that she was going to be a sprinter.

If sprinting was Cofie's calling, how, then, has she been competing in the 800m for the past six years?

"I never thought I'd run the 800m. I always thought I'd run the 200m," Cofie said. "I ended up running the 800m by a fluke. My older sister and I were both doing the hurdles. I was in ninth grade then. I loved my older sister, and I wanted to do whatever she did, so we were both hurdling. She was also running the 800m relay, and I was her alternate. She sprained her ankle in a race, and I was second up for the 800m relay, so I ran. I ran the best time out of all the other relay runners who were all older than I was.

"I had no intentions of running anything over the 400m, but from that point on I ran the 800m, as well."

That fateful day brought Cofie to Penn as a middle-distance recruit.

Track, though, is certainly not Cofie's sole accomplishment. Jeraldine, a pre-med, Biology major, harbors a deep passion for medicine.

Next year, she plans on going straight to medical school or doing a graduate degree at Virgina Commonwealth University and then heading to medical school the following year.

Her intense commitment to both her athletic endeavors and her academic pursuits has provided her with a long list of accomplishments and has mixed all the right ingredients for her success as a leader.

Cofie's foremost goal is to "glorify God in all things." It is this focus that has made Cofie a superb captain of the Penn women's track team.

"I like to make things fun but I also like to get things done," she said. "On the track people call me the bad cop because I say 'you have to do this and you have to do that.' They also call me the good cop because, off of the track, I'm on top of my schoolwork and I want to have good relationships with everyone."

As Cofie looks to the future, she knows that she's going to miss this team very much.

"Working with the girls has been wonderful," Cofie said. "I'm definitely going to miss track."

Cofie exuded deep pride in her team's motivation and cohesiveness.

"I've especially enjoyed working with this team. They've been so much closer, and they're really talented and and they really want to work."

When asked how she balances being a successful leader, athlete and student, Cofie responded with a quote from 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 that hangs on her wall.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete but only one receives a prize, so run that you may obtain it and every athlete exercises self-control in all things?," she said.

And Cofie wants to be the one to receive the grand prize at the Penn Relays.

"I'm definitely out there to win," she said. "If you're not out there to win then why are you out there at all?"

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