Cleo Whiting will be one of several distance runners hoping to help Penn track build off its performance at Lehigh last weekend at the Princeton Invitational on Saturday.
Credit: Courtesy of Penn AthleticsIt’s a busy weekend for Penn Athletics, as eleven teams will compete over the next several days, with seven teams set to throw down on the Quakers’ home courts, pool and track on Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a quick look at what to expect from three of the seven sports competing between this coming weekend:
MEN’S TENNIS
The men’s tennis teams from the City of Brotherly Love will become rivals on the courts on Saturday as they compete in the City 6 Tournament at Penn’s own Levy Tennis Center.
Penn will go up against Drexel as well as the four other Big 5 teams, La Salle, St. Joseph’s, Temple and Villanova. The toughest competition for Penn will likely come from the Wildcats, a squad that was solid throughout all four tournament appearances in September and October.
This weekend marks the Quakers first taste of competition since the culmination of the fall season in mid-October. The Red and Blue finished their fall bout of tournaments with a meager showing at the Northeast Regional Championships at St. John’s. Penn’s strongest performance came from the doubles pair of co-captain Jeremy Court and freshman Nicolas Podesta that lost to Harvard in the quarterfinals.
FENCING
On Saturday at the Tse Ping - Cheng Cheung Ling Sports Center, the Penn men’s and women’s fencing squads will host the Philadelphia Invitational, the Quakers’ first home competition of the New Year.
The Red and Blue are coming off of a strong showing at the Penn State Invitational last weekend in Happy Valley. The tournament was especially eventful for the women’s team, who knocked off last year’s national champion — Penn State — to end the weekend with a 4-1 record. The Quakers’ sole loss came from Ivy foe Columbia, a team currently ranked second in the nation. Last weekend was less exhilarating on the men’s side, as the team finished 3-1 and won 72 of 108 bouts.
This weekend, the Quakers will go up against fencers from Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina. Penn’s eighth-ranked men’s squad should easily handle its opponents, while the women — currently ranked sixth — can expect the steepest competition from Northwestern, rated ninth in the nation.
TRACK & FIELD
The men’s and women’s track & field teams head to Princeton on Saturday to compete in the Princeton Invitational, the teams’ second meet of the spring semester.
If last weekend’s performance at Lehigh’s Angry Birds Invitational is any indicator of what is to come, the Quakers can expect more fast times and near record-setting marks from its stars. It seems that Penn’s only weakness going into the weekend will be battling the cold weather doldrums.
In particular, junior thrower Sam Mattis has literally shouldered the success of the men’s team’s results in the field — last weekend in the weight throw he tallied the eighth best throw in school history.
On the women’s side, a pack of four freshman sprinters make Penn a force to be reckoned with in the 60-meter and 200-meter races. The Quakers are also formidable in the long distance events bolstered by consistently fast times from twins Cleo and Clarissa Whiting.
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