The women's cross country team is used to being together, on and off the course.
Senior Charlotte Lawson, for one, has lived with Kinjal Parikh and Leah Brogan since their freshman year.
And at the Women's Brown Race on Friday, a large field of competitors allowed the three Quakers to run side by side.
Penn finished 15th of 43 teams with 475 points, even though its top five runners - including Lawson- all improved their career-best time by over 30 seconds.
"The places were better," coach Gwen Harris said. "Their times were tremendously better, and they did a good job."
Because the race featured 300 runners, the level of competition was higher than at the Quakers' previous, smaller meets this season.
However, the cutthroat atmosphere actually contributed to the Quakers' success.
"I think that when you're in a bigger pack and you have more people to run with, it's easier to put the mental part of the race aside a little bit and just kind of go with it," Lawson said.
She ran side-by-side with junior Anna Aagenes throughout the race, but edged her at the end for fourth place on the team.
With three top-10 finishers, West Virginia won the event, 31 points ahead of second-place Villanova. Cornell, Penn's lone Ivy companion, finished ninth with 278 points.
Friday's race gave the Penn runners an idea of their competition; many of their opponents will remain in the foreground as nationals approach.
"We want to be challenged by the people that are in front of us," Harris said.
"We know we can move up."
The Quakers hope to execute that mentality and make their mark by season's end.
"Our team is running really well," said Lawson, "and I wouldn't be surprised if, when we get to the Heptagonals, which is our Ivy League meet, we surprise a lot of people."
