Opening meet a success for W. X-C

Penn women's cross country coach Gwen Harris doesn't care about her runners' times.

"It doesn't matter what your time is, it matters where you are in the race," Harris said. "We could win a meet and have rotten times."

On Saturday at the Ram Invitational the Quakers not only had a good time, they performed well, too. Penn placed second overall with 58 points. Columbia won the overall team title with 19 points.

Harris emphasized the Quakers outstanding team performance. The Red and Blue placed three runners in the top 11, with Abbi Gleeson taking fourth, Elaina Lord taking sixth and Kristen Koch finishing 11th.

Freshmen Christine Myers and Courtney Epps earned the fourth and fifth spots for the Quakers, which is promising for seasons to come.

Junior Gleeson clocked in with an impressive time of 18:53. She consistently leads the Quakers, and last season, she finished in the top spot for the Quakers in all five meets.

Following her 14th place finish at Heptagonals she was named to the All-Ivy team as a sophomore.

Lord, a junior as well, also had a fine showing, and clinched the second spot for the Quakers with a time of 19:00.49. She was followed by senior Koch, who has had four solid seasons with the Quakers, in 19:33.

Last year, each of these runners made her mark on the Red and Blue with strong showings at each of the meets and will try to continue to be successful in their 2002 campaign.

Penn has already bettered its mark from last year. In 2001, the Quakers were fifth at the Ram Invitational. Gleeson was ninth with a time of 19:02.

However Gleeson, Lord and Koch are not the only runners to look out for this season.

In practice and in meets the Quakers have been training hard and Harris is impressed with their teamwork. In fact, their teamwork is what Harris is most impressed with.

She cites the Quakers' smooth transition to a new coaching staff as one of their biggest assets. Harris was hired over the summer to replace 25-year veteran coach Betty Costanza, who retired last year. In addition, Steve Walsh was hired last week as an assistant to coach the men's and women's distance programs.

In spite of the fact that the Quakers have two new coaches, the level of trust that they have already built up bodes well for the upcoming season.

"They're letting us in," Harris said. "And letting us do the things we need to do to help make them successful."

Among others, this includes a rigorous training schedule to increase their level of strength.

While the Quakers fared well in their first meet, the Paul Short Invitational on Sept. 28 will likely be tougher. The Quakers were eighth in the Lehigh-hosted event last season.

"When you have two new coaches and a new program you have no idea what's going on," Harris said. "And that's normal... [you are] developing trust about each other and giving them the idea that it's going to be exciting."

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