The Penn men's cross country team is ready to turn a few heads this Saturday as it gets ready to take on the top schools in the country at the Asics/Pacesetter Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind.
The Quakers were invited to compete in this meet as they are currently ranked as one of the nation's top 60 teams.
These 60 schools have been divided into two separate races and Penn is set to face the nation's best in its pairing, including top-ranked Stanford, No. 2 Arkansas-Little Rock, No. 4 Northern Arizona, and No. 10 BYU.
"We're in the hot heat," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "We definitely have the harder of the two races."
Stanford is the prohibitive favorite to win this race held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course hosted by Indiana State University.
The Cardinal harriers have dominated this meet in the past. In the race's seven-year history, they have won six times, including last year. The team has also been ranked first in the nation for the entire season.
Though this is by far the most competitive field the Quakers have met this season, they are approaching the meet without fear.
"We're definitely not nervous," Penn sophomore Dan Treglia said. "After all, we have nothing to lose. People don't look at us as serious contenders, but I think we are going to turn some heads."
Sophomore Stephen Hayes agrees. "I'm real excited for it," he said. "We can only surprise people, not disappoint them."
While Powell hopes to surprise teams, he remains realistic and is certain -- even going into the race -- that his team is not the best in the nation.
"I'm confident we aren't going to win it," Powell said. "But it's still a key race that you got to get up for. It shows you how you are doing vis-a-vis the best teams in the country, and I expect each and every team to be surprised by our results."
The team is also excited to face rivals Columbia, Harvard, and powerhouse Dartmouth -- the three Ancient Eight squads in Penn's race.
Besides the competition, there are other aspects of this race which the Quakers are seeing for the first time this year.
For one, the trail itself is flatter than usual.
"It's a relatively flat course, which means that it's a much faster race," Hayes said.
Moreover, the 30-team heat is much larger than normal and will probably feature a lot of congestion.
"This large field will make it easy to get caught behind packs [of runners]," Treglia said. "This is one mistake we've made before. If this happens we are basically sitting ducks."
The Quakers hope that this is only the first time that they make the trip to Terre Haute this year. The Indiana course is also the site of the NCAA National Championships on Nov. 25.
Still, Penn knows a return trip is somewhat unlikely.
"We'd have to put a lot of things together to get there," Hayes said.
