W. Track's Lord blazes past foes at the Armory

During the fall cross country season, Lainie Lord's efforts did not yield the results she wanted. Not so last week at the Armory in New York City, however, as the Penn junior raced past her competition seamlessly. "Lainie's race was definitely the highlight of the meet," Penn junior Caroline Rebello said. "It was so exciting to watch -- she kept passing people." Lord dropped 16 seconds off of her previous personal record in the 3000 meter run, and the improvement was good for third overall. The time of 9:51.48 earned her a spot in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. "It was wonderful," Penn coach Gwen Harris said. "I need her to realize that her hard work at practice this fall as well as during the winter is paying off and that she will continue to get better." Fellow distance runners Kim Milans, Susan Eisenberg, Anna-Marie Allander and Chris Myers were happy with their performances in the distance medley relay -- a 12:08.89 finish. However the time was a few hundredths of a second short from the ECAC qualifying time. "They just missed their goal but have taken huge steps," Harris said. "They're still trying to learn how to race. They'll get there." Other Penn athletes did not have the same positive results. According to Rebello, the vaulters were unhappy with their lack of improvement. Top vaulter Sam Crook was not at the meet and Rebello only vaulted a height of 10 feet-11.75 inches. Sprinters expressed similar discontent with their races. Izu Emeagwali turned in what she considered a less than stellar performances in the 60 and 200 meter dashes "I ran consistent to how I've been running all season but I'm disappointed that I didn't go faster," Emeagwali said. However, according to Emeagwali, Harris was pretty happy with how the meet went as a whole. Harris was glad that the Quakers got the chance to compete against some of the best track programs in the nation such as Georgetown and Duke. "It was a great experience racing against harder competition than we are used to," freshman Michelle Bowen said. "We'll see teams like North and South Carolina again in outdoor track." With Heptagonals coming up on March 1-2, the team plans to spend the next few weeks focusing on individual events. "Hopefully the snow will melt and we can actually hold meaningful practices," Rebello said. "The snow on Monday was the biggest letdown." Harris admits that the Red and Blue have some things to work on, and that it will take some of the athletes longer than others to see everything come together. "When we can't be outside we do drills and short sprints inside," Harris said. "This is not quality." Despite poor weather conditions, the Quakers expect that two weeks of tough preparation will yield results like they saw in Lord at the Armory.

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