Penn track waiting to blaze a new trail

Offseason? What offseason?

There’s no such thing as one for the sprinters, jumpers and throwers of the Penn track team, who have been hard at work even while their longer-distance counterparts have received all of the publicity during cross country season.

After a long summer away, the Penn track program has reorganized itself under the new regime of men’s coach Steve Dolan and women’s coach Tony Tenisci.

They have instilled a new sense of organization and enthusiasm among both the men and women that will come in handy at this Friday’s Lehigh Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa.

Everyone associated with the program from top to bottom has noticed the change.

“[The program]’s been way more organized,” senior hurdler Tim Carey said. “I mean, last year, we only had [men’s head coach Robin Martin], he pretty much came in because coach [Charlie] Powell left kind of unexpectedly, so he was kind of thrown into the fire there.

“But this year, we have more coaches on staff … each group of people, even though we come here as a team, they all kind of divide into their teams and know what they’re doing every day.”

Dolan’s hiring has allowed many assistant coaches to specialize in particular events and offer event-specific coaching, including Martin, who continues to focus on the middle-distance runners.

Tony Tenisci has also made a transition. After 26 years focusing solely on throwing events, Tenisci has now become head coach of the entire women’s team.

With Tenisci’s focus expanding beyond his specialty, senior thrower Charlotte Pope has taken on a position of tremendous responsibility.

As the only women’s thrower on the team with any intercollegiate experience, Pope has played a crucial role in implementing Tenisci’s vision. She has helped guide a squad of five new freshman throwers to their competitive debuts.

“I’m the only female thrower left from last year,” Pope said. “So coach Tenisci decided to begin throwing a lot earlier in the season because we have a lot of natural talent coming in that has yet to be exposed to the competitive nature of intercollegiate athletics.

“It’s sort of a measurement as to what sorts of talent they have, what sort of skill sets they have coming in so you can really dig deep and specialize on each athlete.”

With the new focus on event-specific training, a similar enthusiasm has grown on the track team, one not unlike the new optimism that defined the long-distance runners’ just-completed cross country season.

“I’ve been very impressed with the student-athletes,” Dolan said. “They’ve given great energy, and they’ve been open to really trying some new ideas and training concepts.

“It’s been fun to watch it, and I really think the team is looking forward to actually competing after all this training.”

If the enthusiasm can carry over on Friday, then there’s no telling what heights the Red and Blue will reach this upcoming year.

A previous version of this story inaccurately reported Robin Martin was no longer the men’s head coach and was focusing exclusively on middle-distance runners. In fact, he is still the men’s head coach with a specialty in middle-distance.

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