Penn's distance medley relay teams shined as men's and women's track accrued 13 bids to the IC4A and ECAC Championships at the Giegengack Invitational last weekend at Yale.
The men nearly added the distance medley relay team to their resume of NCAA qualifiers with a time of 4:44.20, missing the qualifying cutoff by half a second.
Sophomores Tim Kaijala and John Guzman and seniors Eric Ljungquist and Courtney Jaworski ran that time to finish second in the event to Georgetown.
Jaworski and Kaijala also qualified for the IC4As in the 800 meter with times of 1:50.46 and 1:50.71, respectively.
They will be joined by freshman Brian Scotland, who won the 1,000m with 2:28.79, and Ljungquist, who ran the 400m in 49.35.
The mile relay team, with a finish of 3:14.47, is also bound for the IC4As, which will be held on March 4-5. Men's coach Charlie Powell described the team's performance as "a big step forward."
The women showed their depth in New Haven by collecting eight ECAC bids, also led by the distance medley relay.
A time of 11:32.83, the second-best mark in team history, will send sophomores Claire Kim, Stacy Kim, Jesse Carlin and junior Christina Morrison to the Eastern Conference championship meet.
Claire Kim, Stacy Kim and Carlin will compete at the ECACs in individual events -- the 3,000m, the mile and the 400m, which Carlin won.
Other qualifiers included sophomore Shaunee Morgan -- who will compete in the 400m -- the 4x400m relay team and sophomore Jamie Liberti in the mile.
Yet arguably Penn's most impressive ECAC qualification -- and the one of which women's coach Gwen Harris was most proud -- came from a rookie runner.
Freshman Kinjal Parikh won the 1,000m in 2:57.19, a time which was also the sixth best in the program's history.
"It was our first meet at Yale's new track, and we did a pretty good job," Harris said, specifically highlighting the strong performances of Parikh and Carlin. "We're well ahead of where we were last year."
The ECACs for the women will be held March 3 in Boston.
Although the meet was only an individual competition, she added that the Quakers "[took] on the meet like a team" to gain experience for team-based competitions such as the Heptagonal Championships.
The Heps will take place on May 6 at Franklin Field for the women and Feb. 25-26 at Dartmouth for the men.
