After a break in action this weekend from competing, the Penn women's track team is fresh to come back for the Penn Relays.
"The last week and a half has been a really nice mental break before Penn Relays," senior Meghan Moran said.
With more of their attention focused on the culminating meet, the Heptagonal Championships, the Quakers hope to prepare themselves for that meet and meanwhile have a good time.
"Penn Relays is unlike any meet or practice I've ever competed in," Moran said. "No matter how many times you do it, it never gets old. You're always in awe."
This will be Moran's seventh and final time competing in the meet, as well as the last time competing at Franklin Field. She thinks that while it will be exciting as always, it will certainly be bittersweet as well. She enters hoping to triple jump her season's best distance.
"I'd like to do well so that I can get a good seed at Heps," Moran said. "It'll give me some confidence going in."
Other athletes will focus on obtaining times and distances that will earn them places in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships.
"I only have about six inches more to go before I can qualify for ECACs," junior Ingrid Gustafson said. "This will be a good place to do it because there will be lots of crowds and tough competition."
Unlike most track meets, the focus of this one will be on the relays. The only individual events will be for jumpers, throwers and intermediate hurdlers.
"I am very excited to pole vault there," Gustafson said. "Last year, it was pouring rain and it was cold -- a bad first impression. Although I vaulted really well last year, this year should better in terms of weather."
Freshman Lauren Davis, another pole vaulter, will be competing at Penn Relays for the first time. She looks forward to facing athletes from big-time schools as well as former competitors from her high school.
Junior Michelle Hart will be running the 4x400m relay, and possibly the shuttle hurdle and sprint medley. In the 4x400m, Hart looks forward to being able to gauge her relay's standing amongst the other Ivy League schools.
"We've had great practices this week, and unlike at other meets, everyone will be fresh for the event," Hart said.
Individually, Hart will be running the 400m hurdles. She hopes to "smooth out" her rhythm before Heps.
While the Quakers aspire to do well in their relays and individual events, they are also excited to be part of such a large, historically important event.
"It's fun because it's so crowded and everybody there loves track and field," junior Caroline Rebello said. "You get 20,000 people in the stands who are die-hard track and field fans. There's nothing like that anywhere else."
According to Gustafson, the men's 4x100m relay could be especially interesting to watch because all of the southern schools' relays are "insanely fast."
While her teammates are watching the men's sprinters fly by, Moran will be writing her senior thesis. Happy that finals and Penn Relays are not occurring concurrently as it was last year, she hopes to be able to spend more time at the field beyond her own event.
Also excited for the meet, junior Kai Ivory claims that although they've had a tough week of practice, the Penn Relays is always a highlight as the end of the season approaches.
