Penn track & field picks up the pace

As the winter season gains steam, the Penn track team is showing no signs of slowing down.

Anchored for the second meet in a row by a number of outstanding individual performances, the Quakers turned in another excellent showing at the New York Road Runners’ College Night at the Armory in New York on Saturday.

For the men’s squad, which finished second out of 14 teams on the evening, there was no event that the Red and Blue couldn’t handle.

Sophomore sprinter Tom Timmins starred in the 500-meter dash once again, winning with a time of 1:04.13, good enough to qualify for the IC4A Championships.

Joining Timmins at the IC4A event will be freshman Tim Hamlett, who finished second in 1:04.35, and senior Allante Keels, who finished fourth in 1:05.00.

Though Timmins stood alone atop the podium in the 500m, the trio found themselves victorious together by the evening’s conclusion.

Joined by reshman Brandon Senior, the three won the meet-concluding 4×400m relay with a time of 3:17.55, just barely beating out Virginia State’s squad of Te’Shad Chambers, Daniel Ross, Clive Cameron and Prince Owusu-Mensah by four hundredths of a second.

Cheered on by a garrison of their fellow Quakers, the relay unit provided the capper to an amazing evening for the team.

“[The relay] was really kind of a fun way to end the night for us,” coach Steve Dolan said. “We had essentially our whole team standing around the corner, cheering.”

There were plenty of other happy moments on the night for the men’s team.

Junior Jake Brenza won the shot put for the second week in a row, barely beating out freshman Sam Mattis with a throw of 15.61 meters, while freshman Clark Shurtleff finished second in the mile with a time of 4:13.36, just barely getting beaten out by Manhattan junior Mikael Rojeras.

Not to be outdone, the women’s team put forth a number of sterling efforts of their own, finishing second out of 13 teams.

Freshman Elyssa Gensib, running in her first indoor intercollegiate meet, blew away the field in the mile, breaking the tape with a final time of 5:07.16.

Gensib was also part of a winning relay team for the Quakers, teaming with freshman Shannon McCarthy, sophomore Mia Spinelli and junior Chelsea Delaney to win the 4×800m with a time of 9:39.72.

The biggest story of the day for the women’s team, though, was freshman Theresa Picciallo, who set a school record in the process of finishing third in the shot put with a toss of 14.11 meters.

“Theresa’s throw was big,” Dolan said. “Our women’s throwers are really training well together. Theresa was third in the shot put and Charlotte [Pope] was fourth, and that was a lifetime best for Charlotte … so that was really good.”

Riding high after another strong evening, the Quakers are hitting their stride just in time for a return to Lehigh. The Red and Blue will hope to duplicate their success from earlier on Saturday at the Mountain Hawk Invitational.

“We certainly have a lot to develop and a ways to go,” Dolan said. “But I like where we’re starting and spirits are high.”

As a coach, it’s hard to ask for much more.

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