A wonderful Thursday at the track was a rough Thursday for the Penn Quakers.
With the exception of the 4x400-meter relay team and the versatile Shani Boston, there wasn't much to get excited about. Here are Penn's Day 1 results. I was trackside all day and results aren't all coming in, so apologies if the field events are incomplete.
Women's 400m Hurdles:
Carolyn Auwaerter 1:04.01
(5/9 in Heat 6, 43/66 Overall)
Pari Hashemi, 1:15.60
(9/9 in Heat 4, 65/66 Overall)
Women's 4x100m Relay:
Hannah Cope, Kelly Allred, Hallie Cope, Jessica Ehrlich, 49.53
(8/9 in Heat 2, 64/90 Overall)
A little trouble with the handoffs
Women's Distance Medley Relay:
Charlotte Lawson, Anna Aagenes, Madeleine Evans, Jamie Liberti, 11:57.23
(12/17 in second-tier, aka "College", division.)
Never a factor. 13th, 12th and 13th at the three handoffs.
Women's 4x400m Relay:
Jamie Massarelli, Jesse Carlin, Pari Hashemi, Lauren Blake, 3:48.49
(2/6 in Heptagonal, aka Ivy League, race)
Second handoff nearly simultaneous with Cornell, which pulled away by four-plus seconds over the last two legs.
Men's 3,000m Steeplechase:
Dan Howard, 9:33.75
(16/19 in second-tier "College" division)
Alesandro Shepard, 10:02.06
(18/19 in second-tier "College" division)
Both toward the back of the pack from the start
Women's 3,000m:
Leah Brogan, 9:58.81
(15/29)
Men's 5,000m:
Clayton Smith, 15:01.13
(32/38 in second-tier, aka "College", division)
Brian Cullin, 15:14.36
(36/38 in "College" division)
Women's Discus:
Charli Tabler, 34.45m
(30/32 in second-tier, aka "College", division)
Women's Long Jump:
Shani Boston, 5.69m
(13/31 in Eastern division)
Camille Richard, 5.50m
(t-20/31 in Eastern division)
Whitney Taglaivini, 5.50m
(t-20/31 in Eastern division)
Women's Shot Put:
Shani Boston, 13.11m
(10/25 in Eastern division)
Iman Johnson, 12.45m
(19/25 in Eastern division)
Distance count: Using the rules of our contest a few posts back, there were 2,323.02 miles run at the Penn Relays Thursday, for a running total (no pun intended) of 4,911.58 miles.
When Penn Relays fans think of Long Beach Poly, they often think of their trademark, but currently absent, high socks or of Relays studette Shalonda Solomon who went on to star for South Carolina.
But they're just the beginning of the long list of great names to come out of the school. Ranked No. 1 in the country on Sports Illustrated's recent list of best sports high schools, Poly has produced Tony Gwynn, Chase Utley, Billie Jean King, Willie McGinest and not-as-athletic stars Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg.
Now, keep an eye out for this name, the best name in this year's field and one of the best runners as well. Turquoise Thompson ran a 54.0 split, the second fastest of the 2,272 high school girls 4x400m splits.
And on a strange note, we have a high school team in town from Birmingham, England, which features national champion distance runner Hannah England. Weird.
On second thought, ignore that last post.
After it was announced that Kimberly Williams broke the triple jump record with a 12.91-meter jump, that record was taken away.
The culprit: a 2.7 meters per second (roughly 6.0 miles per hour) tail wind, which nullifies the jump as far as the record books go. However, first place is still hers.
It didn't take long for a record to be set at the 2007 Penn Relays, and the source was not a surprising one.
Kimberly Williams of Vere Tech in Jamaica became the first ever three-time winner of the High School Girls Triple Jump and did it with a Relays record 12.91-meter jump.
Williams broke the nine-year-old record of 12.87 meters, set by Carlene Cummings of Dwight Morrow (Englewood, N.J.). Williams had won the 2005 and 2006 events with jumps of 12.47 meters both years.
Just a few more thoughts as I sit through an insufferable 3 hours and 40 minutes of high school girls 4x400 action.
The best moment of the morning so far was the special welcome and large ovation for the 4x100 team of Virginia Tech. As I wrote last week, there would be a time when sports would regain their place in Hokiedom. The healing is far from complete if it can ever be complete, but it's nice to see some aspects of atatlife moving on in a normal way.
The play of the day so far goes to an anonymous cameraman, who saved one heat of the 4x100. After Georgia State dropped the baton on its final handoff, the stick went unnoticed in Lane 8 as the next heat started. But our hero saw the baton and quickly got it out of the way to a nice ovation from the Northeast corner of Franklin Field.
The Relays staff is a little behind on having official results posted, but stay tuned to the Buzz for your Quakers results and to see any records that fall over the next three days.
Welcome to ladies day at the Penn Relays as the high school girls and college women take the big stage.
Here are the day's highlights and lowlights so far.
Highlights:
Methacton (PA) high schooler Ryann Krais ran a 58.93, the nation's fastest time of the year, to win the 400-meter hurdles.
Fellow DP sportswriter Pari Hashemi getting the action started this morning in the college edition of the 400m hurdles. She'll compete later in the Heps 4x400.
The Penn Relays showing a little sense of humor in their homage to the Second Vatican Council, putting Pope John XXIII (NJ) and Pope Paul VI (VA) in the same heat of the 4x800 small schools relay.
Penn Relays director Dave Johnson and his cronies competing against yours truly in a rousing game of Quizo at New Deck last night. Glad to see he could go out the night before the big day.
My first Jamaican beef patty of the weekend.
Lowlights:
The fact that the line was out the door at Dunkin Donuts on Walnut Street this morning with several runners in the group. I know they're a sponsor this year, but isn't there something better to eat before the races?
An ugly collision on the last handoff by the Heritage High School 4x100 team. But anchor Shanice Mitchell made a nice recovery and even stayed out of last place in the race.
Our first of many raindrops over the course of the next three days.
And for those of you who entered the contest yesterday, going into the start of today's events, we were at 2,603.58 miles with the distance classic, the decathlon and the heptathlon completed.
For those of you who are going to the Penn Relays this weekend, you're going to see a lot of miles run.
How many, you ask me?
No. How many, I ask you.
A Penn Relays T-shirt goes to the one of you who comes closest to the total number of miles that will have been run (and racewalked and wheelchair sprinted) at the 2007 Penn Relays when the event closes Saturday night.
E-mail me your guesses at zlevine@sas.upenn.edu by (DEADLINE EXTENDED) 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Here are the details:
This is not played by "The Price is Right" rules. Just the one of you who is closest, whether you miss high or low.
The Distance Classic counts. The decathlon and heptathlon count. Hurdles and the steeplechase count. And remember, the racewalks and wheelchair races count.
No field events count, so I don't want to hear about running starts in the long jump.
No event at a level younger than high school counts.
If a runner or relay team gets a DNF, they still count as having run the full distance of the race. However if a team doesn't start the race, add a big, fat zero to the total.
1 mile = 1.609 kilometers. No more decimal places.
They've waited 10 years for a Lou Gehrig Division title, and now the Quakers must wait a little bit longer. With a chance to clinch the division with a sweep over Cornell today, Penn came up just short, losing Game 2 11-10 in 12 innings. Penn had a dramatic five-run ninth-inning rally including four with two outs, to tie the game, but the Quakers couldn't push across the winning run up in Ithaca, N.Y.
The Quakers were fighting from behind all game, although they brefly held leads of 1-0 in the first and 2-1 in the second.
Penn got exactly what it needed in the first game of its make-up doubleheader against Cornell, though.
The Quakers thrashed the Big Red 13-1, getting three innings from Jim Birmingham and four from Doug Brown for the win.
Catcher Jeff Cellucci was 4-for-4 with four RBIs, and Joey Boaen hit his fourth homer for Penn (12-8 Ivy). Cornell, losers of four out of five, is eliminated with a 7-9 record.
Now the Quakers must root for the Big Red to win at least one game against Princeton in their two doubleheaders Friday and Sunday. Only a four-game Princeton sweep would create a tie in the standings.
More to come in tomorrow's DP.
Good morning. Just got back from eating my words about Penn not winning five championships this year. Men's hoops, gymnastics, women's lacrosse, women's tennis, men's golf and a tie for men's tennis to be broken next week.
Anyway, Nick Francona last pitched March 27, Mike Marg and Bret Wallace April 11. Now all three are off the roster, and yesterday, that came back to hurt the Quakers in a big way.
Coach John Cole describes all three hurlers as "voluntarily retired" and did not elaborate.
For the Quakers yesterday, the math was simple and painful. Seven relievers, minus those three, minus one in Robbie Seymour who had to be fresh to pitch Tuesday against Cornell, equals three.
Three relief pitchers available for what turned out to be 19 innings of baseball.
So in Game 2 when William Gordon couldn't find the plate with a 6-4 lead and with Andy Console (Game 1) and Reid Terry (Game 2) having already pitched, there was nowhere else to turn. Cole had to leave his freshman in the ballgame. Two innings, four hits, three walks, two hit batters and six runs later, Princeton had scored its 10th unanswered run and won 10-6.
The good news for the Quakers is that if they can figure out a way to get there, the depleted bullpen shouldn't be too much of a problem in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series. With workhorses Todd Roth and Jim Birmingham pitching the first two, there shouldn't be much of a need for relief.
Saturday saw another strong showing for Penn's spring sports: here's an update on all of the day's action.
Women's tennis finished its whirlwind tour of the Ivy League, finishing 7-0 in league play and winning its first championship since 2002.
Men's lacrosse gave Maryland a decent run, but ultimately succumbed to a superior team. If Brian Voelker and crew want to be at the NCAA Tournament this year, they're going to have to pay for a ticket like everyone else.
Baseball took care of business at Meiklejohn Stadium, as Todd Roth and Jim Birmingham each won a game. The magic number for Penn to clinch the Gehrig Division over Cornell is 3.
In other news this weekend:
Men's tennis clinched a share of the Ivy League title Friday, and can get it all to itself Sunday with a win over Columbia at 2 p.m. That would mark only the second time in league history that the same school has won during the same year in both M. and W. Tennis.
Women's lacrosse made no mistake against Brown. Karin Brower's squad is inching closer to home field advantage throughout the NCAA Tournament.
Softball stayed on course for the title, managing a split against Princeton.
Rowing: The lightweight varsity eight came in last in the race for the Wood-Hammond Trophy. The heavyweights came in second out of three at the Blackwell Cup, and the women's varsity eight came in third out of four at the 1984 Trophy race.
Men's and women's golf will both wrap up the Ivy League championships tomorrow -- look to the DP's finals issue for coverage.
Track saw Tim Kaijala clock an NCAA regional time on the men's side at the Larry Ellis invitational.
So your Lou Gehrig Division standings look like this going into the weekend's games:
Penn 9-5
Cornell 5-5
Princeton 6-6
Columbia 7-9
First off, is the obvious scenario. If Penn sweeps Princeton and its make-up doubleheader against Cornell, Penn wins the division at 15-5, and will have a great chance to host the Ivy League Championship Series.
But even if Penn can win three of four against Princeton, and then splits its against Cornell (likely early next week), the Quakers will finish 13-7. That would mean Cornell would have to go 7-1 against Princeton and Columbia to tie Penn. That's something for the Quakers to shoot for.
If the Quakers lose two to Princeton but sweep the Big Red, they will still finish 13-7, which will eliminate the Tigers and force Cornell to sweep Princeton and Columbia.
However, if Penn only wins three of its last six games, finishing at 12-8, things get a little dicier. That leaves Princeton still alive, and gives Cornell a chance to go only 6-2 or 5-3 to tie (depending on which games Penn wins), and Penn can do nothing about it.
On the softball side, it's a similar situation, but a little more advanced in time. The South Division looks like this:
Penn 12-4
Cornell 8-4
Princeton 8-4
Columbia 7-9
This time, Penn has to go to Princeton, and even a sweep doesn't guarantee the Quakers anything, as Cornell could win out over Columbia and Princeton to tie Penn -- but the Quakers would be in a great position. Three wins would also eliminate the Tigers, but then Cornell can go 7-1 to tie.
Meanwhile, if Penn splits, things get interesting. Princeton would have to sweep Cornell to tie, and Cornell would have to go 6-2 against Columbia and Princeton to tie. So in that case, making the Princeton-Cornell series meaningful may actually help Penn, which means that two wins might be better than three.
So the bottom line for both teams, is, two wins this weekend is a must, which puts both squads in very good positions in their divisions.
According to The Daily Princetonian, former Princeton basketball player and Georgetown assistant Sydney Johnson has been offered the Tigers' men's basketball job.
So what does Johnson have in common with another Ivy coaches? Yes, he is African American, which would make Penn's Glen Miller and Cornell's Steve Donahue the only white head coaches in the league.
But Johnson is a former Ivy Player of the Year, in fact the second one from Princeton, the other being Brown head coach Craig Robinson. Penn assistant Perry Bromwell makes the third overall Ivy coach to have won the award. What's so shocking is how young Johnson is. While Robinson was the POY in 1983 and Bromwell in 1987, Johnson's award came in 1997.
Johnson spent the last three years as an assistant under John Thompson III (another Princeton man) after playing overseas following his graduation. This seems to be the route of anyone trying to become a coach: go play overseas, maybe coach there and come back to your Ivy alma mater as an assistant. But if he accepts, Johnson will have really accelerated this trip -- it would be like Penn hiring Matt Langel (first-team All-Ivy in 2000, and a three-year assistant at Penn and Temple) next year.
He may be young, but he was a great player. Johnson is Princeton's all-time steals leader, averaged 9.8 points per game and was the team captain for his final three seasons. Interestingly enough, Johnson averaged only 9.2 points per game during his 1997 senior season and didn't upset UCLA in the NCAA Tournament like the year before. But did lead his team to an undefeated Ivy record, and is one of three Princeton players in the 1,000-point, 400-assist and 200-steal club.
Well, after the the former head coach at Air Force's tenure produced a pair of the worst seasons in school history the past two years, a change is welcome.
Good evening. Just got back from buying my ketchup, mayo and vinegar for tomorrow. Now I just have to decide whether to make Thousand Island dressing or throw it at the juniors of the Buzz for Hey Day.
What's that, Wheeling, there's only one of you? You really better hope I go the dressing route.
Anyway, time to listen up, men of Penn.
For mingling with your female counterparts, Smoke's is overrated, Mad4Mex too expensive and MarBar not worth your time.
But I can tell you what is worth your time: women's lacrosse games.
There was an announced crowd of 1,013 for the Lady Laxers last night, and usually I'm the first to challenge that number, but this time it seemed pretty accurate. It was loud and it was crowded.
Crowded with sorority sisters, that is. Aside from the parents and the occasional youth players in lacrosse gear, it seemed like "The Frank" was crawling with everybody from A Chi Omega sisters to the beauties of I Felta Thi.
And Rich Kahn, who was in top form as always. Good to hear that voice again.
On the field, it was a great night. A couple of nervous moments at the end, as Princeton stepped it up and a few calls went the Tigers' way. But for a team that hasn't really had many close calls this year, they came up big on defense and in goal when they had to.
And it was a game that could be the start of an incredible two weeks for the Penn programs with softball, baseball and both tennis teams in first place.
Good afternoon. Just got back from fighting Joey Crawford and Charlie Manuel at the same time.
Anyway, some good news from the NCAA. The message of this column that I wrote back in September is one step closer to fruition.
The NCAA Division I management council threw its weight behind a proposal that would ban coaches from sending text messages to recruits.
No word yet on whether messages from to television news anchors would be part of the ban.
Hope to see you all at Franklin Field tonight for women's lacrosse as the Ivy title is on the line.
So Penn senior Ibrahim Jaaber has won Big 5 Player of the Year honors. Congratulations to Ibby on winning, and to Penn for its first win of the award since Tony Price in 1979, but I'm not sure Jaaber should have won, and might not have even been the best candidate on his own team.
Don't get me wrong, I think Jaaber was a fine choice for Ivy League Player of the Year, and the Quakers would have gone nowhere without him. But I think that the Big 5 POY could go in three different directions, and I don't think Jaaber fit any one of them.
First, the Big 5 could have given the award simply to the best player in the city. In my opinion, that was Curtis Sumpter of Villanova, who averaged a team-high (in the Big East) 17.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, along with an 81 percent foul-shooting percentage.
Jaaber, on the other hand, averaged 15.9 points per game and 4.5 rebounds, but did tie a Penn record for assists in a season and broke the Ivy League career record for steals. He was great, but I think Sumpter was greater.
Second, the award could have gone to the best player on the best team, which again was Sumpter, of a 4-0 Big 5 team and the higher-seeded (by five lines) of the Big 5's two NCAA Tournament teams.
Finally, the Player of the Year could have been the player who was best during the Big 5 games. Without going into the box score of each team's Big 5 games, I think that Jaaber is ruled out on his own squad. Consider the numbers of fellow senior Mark Zoller in Penn's four Big 5 clashes as compared to Zoller:
Points per game: Zoller 24, Jaaber 20.5
Rebounds per game: Zoller 7, Jaaber, 4.8
Assists per game: Jaaber 7.8, Zoller 2.3
Steals: Jaaber 9, Zoller 8
Turnovers: Zoller 9, Jaaber 18
FT Pct: Zoller 95.5 (21-22), Jaaber 54.5 (12-22)
Also worth noting are Zoller's huge clutch free throws to beat Temple this year.
The two players are close, as they were in the Ivy POY race, but this time I think Zoller gets the edge.
Again, this is no knock on Jaaber, I just think that he wasn't the best candidate for this award.
In yet another Ivy League game, the Quakers had a stretch where they played like No. 1 Cornell, and another where they played like 0-4 Yale.
The Penn men's lacrosse team looked asleep going down 3-1 in the first quarter, but then came roaring back to net five goals in the first 7:40 of the second quarter to take a 6-3 lead, eventually holding on for a 12-10 win over the Bears. Sophomore attacker Craig Andrzejewski scored two of his four goals in this stretch, adding one assist.
This was the third time in as many games in which Penn had a long lackadaisical stretch, but also a short, fantastic burst.
Against Dartmouth, the Red and Blue trailed 8-4 going into the final quarter, but scored five goals in the final 10 minutes, including two in the last two, for the victory. Hosting Princeton, the Quakers played a great first quarter -- leading the nation's No. 5 squad 2-0, but then allowed the next eight goals in the blowout. Now this past weekend Penn scored five goals in under seven minutes.
The results are also as eerily unspectacular, similar to the consistent inconsistency.
The 3-3 (6-5 overall) Quakers have lost to teams -- Princeton, Cornell and Harvard -- that are 6-2 Ivy (not including the wins over Penn) and beat teams -- Yale, Dartmouth and Brown -- that are 2-6. This may not seem too odd, but last year a stronger Penn team lost to a Harvard squad it probably should have beaten, but upended No. 2 Cornell, someone it had no business beating. This year's team has seen some nice stretches and some poor ones, but none have resulted in any bad losses or quality wins.
I'm in no mood for joking around this afternoon, so we'll get right to it.
I came across this photo caption on Philly.com today. In a year that's seen the misdeeds of Rafael Robb, the Au Bon Pain murder suspect and Amy Gutmann in the suicide bomber costume scandal, this is not exactly the kind of press that the University needed.
Good afternonon. Just got back from telling some kids with cancer that, on second thought, they won't be able to spend those 10 days on the Imus Ranch since the funding dried up when some "adults" thought a hyphenated word and a three-letter word were more important than his positive deeds. I'd say the firing was a joke, but I don't think these kids are laughing.
Anyway, on a lighter note, here's the answer to the question of what Tommy Amaker, Craig Robinson and Mike Brey have in common. They're all soldiers in the anti-necktie revolution.
Good evening. Just got back from lecturing my little brother (who's in Louisville for club volleyball Nationals) how irresponsible it is to skip class and run off to Kentucky for a week.
Anyway, I'll keep it short and sweet. What characteristic, somewhat rare in the collegiate coaching fraternity, do current Brown coach Craig Robinson and soon-to-be-introduced Harvard coach Tommy Amaker share? As a hint, Mike Brey of Notre Dame is also a member of this club. And it has nothing to do with having coached at Duke.
Answer coming after Fling.
For your Spring Fling forecast, James Russell of The Spin seems to have backed down from my challenge of a duel, so I'm on my own.
Since I'm not on speaking terms with the Magic 8 Ball anymore, I'll go with the Penn Portal forecast at the request of sports editor Sebastien Angel.
Friday: Windmill picture, high 55
Saturday: Car driving in the rain, high 52
I leave you for the weekend with a couple of thoughts. To the students, enjoy your Spring Fling. For tomorrow may bring sorrow, so tonight let's all be gay. To the alumni, tell the story of the glory. And to everyone else, drink a highball at nightfall.
I'll be drinking mine at 8 a.m.
Good afternoon. Just got back from the protest against Mel Gibson as commencement speaker on College Green.
Anyway, as soon as I saw the headline on ESPN.com, I cringed.
Amaker to become lone black Harvard head coach
Not because I don't think there should be any black coaches at Harvard. I don't care what color my coaches are.
But because Tommy Amaker is already getting the "minority Randy" treatment.
When new Miami football coach Randy Shannon arrived, one of his first questions was about being The U's first black football coach. And he presented a priceless response.
"I'm a ball coach. I don't think it has anything to do with minority issues," Shannon said. "When I go to the ACC meetings, they're going to look at me and go, 'Hey, Randy, how you doing?' They're not going to go, 'Hey, minority Randy.' I'm just going to be Randy Shannon."
I hope with all my heart that Tommy Amaker's welcome at Harvard on Friday won't be about hiring a black coach.
I hope it will be about hiring a coach who's been in the Big East and the Big Ten, and is by all accounts, a great coach and a great person. Hell, I don't even care if it's about all about coach who's never won anything besides an NIT at the head coaching level.
As long as it's not about the token black guy.
I don't deny that given our nation's history of discrimination against black people in the workplace, it's a big deal that Harvard diversified its coaching staff.
However, it's an unfair way to introduce a man who should stand for a lot more than the color of his skin.
For today's Spring Fling forecast, we're going to turn to James Russell of the Spin, who gave this writer no credit in his hijacking of the Spring Fling forecast.
You want to start dueling forecasts? I'm always down for a good duel. You set the terms, I'll set the prize.
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