Henderson | Takeaways from Day One at Penn Relays

Long-distance runners have never gotten the public attention that they deserve.

Full disclosure: I’m biased. Big time.

I was a cross country and (middle- to) long-distance track runner throughout high school. I put everything I had into running, and more often than not, I did so with little to no public fanfare.

I’ll admit, it sounds a bit like sour grapes, but I have plenty of evidence to back up my viewpoint.

Take Thursday at the Penn Relays.

Attendance at Franklin Field was conveniently announced in the middle of the high school 4x400-meter relays: over 21,000 total spectators.

That’s nothing incredible for the Penn Relays, but it’s certainly a solid showing for the first day of the meet.

To say the least, it didn’t last.

As time went on, it seemed like the distances run and attendance at Franklin Field were just about inversely proportional. As distances increased, attendance invariably decreased.

When the women’s distance medley relay college championship rolled around – just after the 4x400m relays concluded, a significant number of fans had already departed.

They missed quite a couple of races.

In the championship, local-favorite Villanova defended its Penn Relays DMR title for the second straight year in dramatic fashion, with anchor-leg Emily Lipari out-kicking Stanford with a brilliant performance in the mile.

Immediately following that was a strong race from even more of a local-favorite: the meet-hosting Quakers.

Penn finished fourth in its heat of the DMR – with freshman Ashley Montgomery bringing it home with a strong time in the mile leg – much to the delight of its on-looking athletes.

As the night went on, the crowd continued to dwindle, but the level of competition did just the opposite. In fact, many of the long-distance races run on “distance night” of the Relays featured some of the best in the nation.

Mixing it up with these elite athletes were three Penn underclassmen – sophomores Elysse Gensib and Brendan Smith and freshman Cleo Whiting – amongst other Quakers.

Gensib and Whiting both ran personal bests in the 3k and cracked the championship’s top 13, and Whiting’s time was third fastest in school history.

“It was unexpected for me to run that well … It’s been really, really fun, and I’m excited that I still have three more years of it,” Whiting said, hardly able to contain herself.

Smith finished in the top 15 of his race – the 5k – but conceded that the grueling nature of the race took its toll on him.

“I may have gone out a little too hard in the beginning,” he noted. “I was just winded by the end of the last mile.”

Track coach Steve Dolan was pleased with how his young squad responded to the challenge of the first day of the Relays.

“You could sense it all week if practice and you can see it now in action,” he said. “Everyone just ups there game when you get to something like this.”

Adding a veteran presence to the proceedings was Kersie Jhabvala, who improved on her second-best 10k time in school history by running a 35:12.

Jhabvala acknowledge the lack of overall attendance, but put a positive spin on it and recognized distance night has her favorite part of the Penn Relays nonetheless.

“You look around and there’s not many people here,” she said. “But that huge cluster of [teammates], that’s your family. That’s all you need.”

Of course, some of the reduced attendance can be attributed to the time getting progressively later and the weather getting cooler, but perception of sprints versus long-distance definitely also played a major factor.

Sprints are high octane and filled with adrenaline, like the most exciting scene of an action thriller.

Contrary to popular belief, though, long-distance races can be quite exciting as well, but instead of getting one scene, you get a full-fledged drama.

Take Connecticut College’s Michael LeDuc’s winning performance in the Olympic development 3,000m steeplechase.

Over 8:48, he battled his competitors, himself, and even a water pit.

When he crossed the line victorious, he fell to the ground and was overtaken with a look of pure joy. Much like Jhabvala, he couldn’t have cared less whether five or 50,000 fans were cheering him on.

I just wish more people were there to see it.