Fire ravages X-Country's early season

As late as last weekend, the Penn men's cross-country team was anxiously awaiting its first meet of the season this Saturday at the Fordham Invitational. But now, just two days away from the Quakers' initial test, their thoughts have shifted to something far more serious.

At approximately 4:40 a.m. Saturday, a fire occurred at 3939 Chestnut Street, a building which housed many members of the cross-country team.

"It's definitely put us behind the eight ball a little bit, no question," Penn coach Charlie Powell said.

The fire started, and was contained, on the second floor, with the other floors sustaining structural damage. While the fire marshal has yet to determine whether or not the fire was intentionally set, safety specialist Gene Janda said that it appears to have been started accidentally.

Though all 19 residents were evacuated safely, two members of the team had to be rescued by the Fire Department. One student sought medical attention, according to Janda, and was treated and released. The student's identity is unknown.

Homeless at this moment, the University is housing the runners at the Sheraton University City at 36th and Chestnut streets.

Residents of neighboring 3941 Chestnut have not been allowed to return to their building due to smoke and water damage.

The runners currently hope to move into their new house on 41st Street at some point next week.

"Tomorrow or Friday, we finally get to go back inside and see what, if anything, is left of our stuff," junior Zack Blodgett said.

How the team responds in its opening race remains to be seen, but the Quakers believe that they are -- despite everything else -- mentally prepared for Fordham.

"I think everyone's nicely prepared," Blodgett said. "The coaches have been really helpful throughout all of this, as far as dealing with this and getting us ready for Saturday."

For now, running seems to be therapeutic, a much-needed release from what might otherwise be on the team's mind. Powell has taken the lead in attempting a return to normalcy. He spoke as a man whose expectations have not changed, and expects a quality performance.

"It's not necessarily about winning," Powell said. "We treat these early races like the preseason in the NFL. There are very specific things we want to get done. We want to find out what some people can do, who can run with who, where our packs are at."

Despite the setback, Powell noted that Penn's top runners are responding to the challenge, led by juniors Nolan Tully and Steve Hayes -- and are still on schedule in terms of their training regimen.

Yet it has affected the preparation of the entire group.

"The problem is we're about a week behind because of this," Powell said. "We haven't been able to talk about goals and other things we would have wanted to. We won't have an idea about those things until next week."

Blodgett echoed those sentiments, explaining that winning during the preseason is not the main goal, rather it is about evaluating the progress that the team has made thus far.

"We want to go out and see where everyone is with their training," Blodgett said. "We have a pretty good pack. Winning and individual performances aren't as important.

"The fire has definitely brought us closer together. Our best guys, like Nolan and Steve, they're more concerned about how we're gonna do as a team."

However they perform on Saturday, the concept of team for this group of runners has never been stronger.

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