Twin sisters Stacy and Claire Kim have been standout performers for the Penn women's cross country team all season. It was no different on Saturday, when they took two of the top three places, propelling the Quakers to a win at the Lafayette Leopard Invitational. The men also had a good day, taking home top honors as well.
Stacy Kim took first place with a time of 20:13.10, edging out Stony Brook junior Dana Hastie, who posted a time of 20:14.70. Claire Kim finished third at 20:34.80.
The juniors' top finishes were enough to propel the Quakers to a convincing victory atop the 13-team field. Penn kept its total at 76 points, while the closest competition came from Columbia, who finished at 157.
"I thought we did a pretty good job," women's coach Gwen Harris said. "We wanted to run really hard and I thought the girls responded really well."
Despite the strong finishes of the Kim sisters, sophomore Kinjal Parikh's 12th-place performance (21:12.70) stood out the most to Harris.
"We've been improving as a team the entire season, and she has been improving quite a bit in the last couple of weeks," Harris said.
Not to be outdone, the men's team had an equally impressive performance as it bested a 14-team field. The men's field came out looking very similar to the women's, with the Quakers taking first with 69 points and Columbia second with 150.
Unlike the women, the men's team won because of its depth.
Coach Charlie Powell's team had Brian Goldberg, Brian Trembley, Ian Foley and Reid McEwen all finished in the top 10, Goldberg (4th overall) getting the team's best time of 25:30.
"It's just our philosophy for this year to have a good solid pack," Powell said. "The guys have done a good job of holding that team philosophy."
The meet was both teams' last competition before the Heptagonal Championships - the Ivy League Championship meet on October 27th.
"This meet got us used to being with each other one more time," Powell said. "It gave us an opportunity to work a strategy that we will use in Heps and allowed us to gain confidence."
Harris, though happy with the performance, said her team has room for improvement heading into the Ivy League meet.
"They have to get better at closing the race, but I think we'll improve on that in the next couple of weeks."
