Final: PENN, 2 Northwestern, 12
The dream season for the Quakers comes to a close. Today's game was not the worst effort that Penn could have put out -- but it was far from their best and certainly lacking for a semi-final matchup. However, most of the credit has to go to Northwestern: they were a well-oiled machine. They played aggressively but made very few mistakes.
In the end, one game should not sully what was a great season for these women.
4:46, 2nd Half: PENN, 2 Northwestern, 12
Things don't improve for the Quakers as Chrissy Muller picks up a yellow card. But Northwestern fouls Penn a few times and the Quakers score again, this time Becca Edwards, unassisted.
11:17, 2nd Half: PENN, 1 Northwestern, 12
An awful turnover by Szelest lets Hilary Bowen walk in for her second goal of the game.
16:06, 2nd Half: PENN, 1 Northwestern, 11
A glimmer of hope for Penn as Chrissy Muller scores. For the first time since the opening face-off, the Penn crowd can be heard as they let out a roar. But they are quickly silenced by Hannah Nielsen .
20:52, 2nd Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 10
Northwestern misses its free position chance but Kristen Kjellman buries the next shot she has. Karen Brower pulls Waxman in favor of Emily Szelest -- it seems to be about saving face for Waxman rather than about turning things around at this point.
23:34, 2nd Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 9
A free position goal gives Aly Josephs her fifth of the game.
Halftime: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 8
More good chances for Penn go begging.
Right now, the Wilcats' defense is setting the tone for the game. The Quakers are having trouble generating quality shots and holding on to the ball. And every time they turn it over, Northwestern is able to march down the field and score.
00:52, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 8
A foul by Northwestern's Christy Finch gives Penn two great chances yet to score. The Quakers come away from that sequence with three shots but no goals. When the Wildcats go back down the field, Waxman stumps them with two good saves. She's looking really fired-up. Unfortunately, Aly Josephs is too fast and too good today, as she scores her fourth.
9:35, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 7
With Penn's defense going right, Aly Josephs goes left and earns a quick hat trick.
10:35, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 6
Some signs of life by the Quakers, as they start to look desperate, fighting for ground balls and forcing turnovers. But the Wildcats turn that agressiveness against them, as Kristen Kjellman just flies down the middle of the field and fires a bullet past Waxman.
12:23, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 5
Another goal, this time by Hilary Bowen. Not much else to say here.
12:46, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 4
Meredith Frank makes a great interception of a Quakers' pass. Right now it feels that for every minute the Quakers have the ball, Northwestern has it for five. Star Wildcats midfielder Kristen Kjellman makes it 4-0 on a free position goal.
14:42, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 3
The Quakers have trouble finding holes in the Wildcats' defense. No surprise there, given that they're known for their tight, agressive defense. Again, the Wildcats set up patiently and don't force the issue. Sarah Waxman makes one great save, but when Northwestern gets the ball back, Aly Josephs finds a seam in the defense and buries her second of the game. Timeout for the Quakers, trying to stop this from quickly getting out of hand.
17:37, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 2
A great effort by Kaitlyn Lombardo to streak down the right side put Penn in great attacking position. Some rough defense by Northwestern wins it back for them, though, and they camp for minutes in Penn's zone. A wraparound by Meredith Frank makes it a two-goal lead.
25:33, 1st Half: PENN, 0 Northwestern, 1
It's a back and forth affair early on. The Quakers are showing their speed but are being too careless with their opportunities. A Penn turnover gives Northwestern great position in the attacking zone, and Aly Josephs buries a close one for NU.
Good afternoon everybody from Franklin Field. The first matchup today of the semifinals pits the surprising No. 4 Quakers (16-1) against the two-time defending champs, the No. 1 Northwestern Wildcats (16-1).
Final: Penn 9, Maryland 7
Maryland made a push on their last possession, but Penn used a triple-team and a key save from Waxman to put it away.
Stay tuned to dp.com for more coverage now and next week of Penn's trip to the lacrosse Final Four, right here at Franklin Field.
Good afternoon from The Buzz.
4:04: Penn 9, Maryland 7
Penn will win this game if it avoids stupid plays, but unfortunately the Quakers just had one, fouling Kelly Kasper right in front of the goal. She scored on the next play. It's a cat-and-mouse game right now; Penn has its offense spread out as far as humanely possible to eat up the clock.
9:43: Penn 9, Maryland 6
Maryland's Lauren Cohen fired a bullet past Waxman from 15 yards out, but that's ok -- that's the kind of shot Penn wants the Terps to take. And it hardly mattered, because freshman phenom and Ivy League ROY Ali DeLuca finally got on the board, shoving anything and everything out of her way to score unassisted. Penn's biggest enemy right now is the clock.
14:17: Penn 8, Maryland 5
Becca Edwards just took a pass from Muller three yards in front of goal and buried it. Burton has gone from invincible to helpless in 10 minutes. What a reversal for Penn.
15:00: Penn 7, Maryland 5
Chrissy Muller scored and Lehman scored another free-position goal from 10 yards out, and all of a sudden Penn has a two-goal lead! My, how the tables have turned. And only one of Penn's goals has been assisted so far. Not bad at all.
20:09: Marlyand 5, Penn 5
Interesting tidbit of the day: Penn hoops coach Glen Miller and assistants Chris Sparks and Mike Martin approach the entrance with a handful of recruits, only to be barred at the gate by guards claiming they didn't know who Miller's two partners-in-crime were. Still awaiting word on whether the coaches had to buy tickets to get in, but I'm sure the recruits were very impressed by that.
21:39: Marlyand 5, Penn 5
Tie game! Chrissy Muller took Burton by complete surprise and fired a line drive right past her helmet. Maybe the Quakers have a winning formula after all.
23:34: Marlyand 5, Penn 4
Neither team can hang onto the ball, and this game has quickly turned into a clinic on team defense. Luckily for Penn, a free-position goal from Ambrozy finally brings the deficit back to one.
Waxman got a serious scare too. She had the ball whacked out of her stick from behind and the Terps should have had an open-net goal -- but they blew it. Can't do that in the NCAA Tournament, but momentum is still with the visiting side.
Halftime: Marlyand 5, Penn 3
I believe the last time Penn got outscored in the second half was against Princeton several weeks ago, 5-6. But that time, Penn was already up 9-4 at the half. Maryland hasn't lost a game this year after leading at the break. Unfamiliar position for the Quakers, let's see how they respond.
1:18, First half: Marlyand 5, Penn 3
Penn needs to make a stand here. Against Boston University last week the Quakers gave the ball back with 17 seconds to go in the first half and watched as the Terriers streaked up the field and scored two seconds before halftime. That would be deadly right now.
3:00, First half: Marlyand 5, Penn 3
This is the most tightly officiated women's lacrosse game I've ever seen. Three offensive fouls in under 10 minutes? Crazy.
3:31, First half: Marlyand 5, Penn 3
Signs of life, despite six turnovers for the Quakers so far. Rachel Manson scored off a pretty feed and Melissa Lehman made her defender look silly in the open field. And Sarah Waxman, Penn's All-Ivy goalie, finally looks comfortable. She guessed wrong on some early Terps shots and almost got burned but looks much better now. The way Maryland is pushing the ball up, she's going to need to have a big game.
16:54, First half: Marlyand 3, Penn 1
Finally! Allison Ambrozy -- not a huge scorer -- finally created some space and buried a short-sided goal past Burton. Penn's going to have to find some other ways to score, though, if it wants to keep things close.
20:29, First half: Marlyand 3, Penn 0
All Terps in the early going, two isolation goals put Penn in an early hole. Player of the game so far is Terps goalie Allie Burton, who's done nothing but stuff the Quakers so far.
Clare Lochary of laxmagazine.com wrote a great sidebar the other day about the different coaching styles of the two teams, and the game is bearing it out so far. The Terps have the green light and they're taking the shots, especially in transition. This is as poorly as I've seen the Penn defense play this year.
One other thought: these refs must be taking their cues from the Suns-Spurs series. A yellow card and no fewer than six whistles so far, most of them on what I would call very light contact.
Good afternoon from Franklin Field. It's a beautiful day for women's lacrosse, and No. 4 Penn finally gets the ACC matchup it's been clamoring for. No. 5 Maryland -- underseeded in my opinion, just like Penn -- will present a darn stiff challenge. It's the tough offense vs. one of the nation's best defenses, so something's gotta give. Stay tuned for live updates.
Shawn Halloran is back in the Ivy League, joining Yale as (presumably) special teams coach after being let go as Penn's offensive coordinator. Seems like a big step down to me, especially since he held the same position for five years with the Elis before taking over at Franklin and Marshall.
But after the great year Penn had on special teams, what school wouldn't want a Quakers coach to run theirs?
I'm chuckling right now; I hope you are too.
Since I'm now officially a junior, assuming I don't fail too many of my classes, I'd like to bid a fond farewell to the DPOSTM alumni who helped make this year a little less hellish.
Thanks first go out to Zachary Levine and Josh Hirsch, both of whom were the first to train myself, Krista Hutz and Sebastien Angel in the ways of the DP. Without them the 123rd DP board would be a shambles. And I think their headcuts managed to pop up on this blog a few times over the past couple years.
Thanks also go out to our other seniors -- Matt Conrad, who I succeeded at the DP; Jeff Greenwald, who put in two terms as an editor; Matt Meltzer, a four-year staffer; and Sarah Lem, our resident senior walk-on. Also props to Fred David, our top sports photographer, who doubtless covered more Penn games than anyone over the last four years.
One final thanks to Evan Goldin, who put untold hours into making this blog actually look like a blog.
So on behalf of The Buzz, thanks for a great year. And thanks to our readers for keeping up; be sure to check back with The Buzz over the summer -- unlike our opinion-oriented counterpart, we don't slack off when school's not in session.
Two not-so-quick notes before I depart:
The women's tennis team was bounced from the NCAA Tournament by Wake Forest. That was no surprise. What was shocking was that the Ivy League rookie and player of the year and Penn's No. 1, Ekaterina Kosminskaya, didn't play.
For the athlete who probably had the biggest impact on any Penn program this year, her absence is more than a little bit strange -- especially after all the trouble it took to get her here.
Edit, 2 pm: Penn coach Mike Dowd told me this afternoon that Kosminskaya had to go home to Russia for "personal, family reasons" that coincided with the Tournament. But she will play in the individuals in Athens, Georgia, where her and doubles partner Maria Anismova -- another freshman -- will be the first Penn women's doubles team ever to compete. End update
Lastly, congratulations are in order for the women's lacrosse team, which took care of business against Boston University on Sunday. A typical Penn performance, holding the Terriers to their second-lowest point total of the year and getting goals from seven different players. Next up: No. 5 Maryland on Saturday -- this time on turf, not grass.
If you thought I was done, sorry.
I just wanted to post about the fun pagentry of commencement and graduation, which is almost as cool as sports uniforms.
First, we have the hoods. All Penn grads get a red and blue-lined hood with another color symbolizing their field of study. The red is pretty close to the new Penn red, which is good.
Now on to the gowns. I think a real fun part is the academic procession, where professors and administrators all march in, wearing the robes and colors of their alma maters.
Of course, Princeton's gown is particulary garish.
Penn's gowns are red and blue, and I think they look kinda nice.
The colored gowns are only for Ph. D's, though, so they're better because they are rarer.
President Amy Gutmann gets her own special presidential robe, trimmed with gold, and has four stripes on her sleeves instead of the usual doctoral three stripes.
She also got to wear this huge medal with the University seal on it.
Added 5 p.m.: Lastly, the fashion statement of the day that I forgot to mention earlier goes to (I'm pretty sure it was him) Sean Estrada of the football team. While I don't have a picture, the guy who I think was Estrada doffed his cap to reveal a San Francisco 49ers logo taped on the top.
Estrada, of course signed with the Niners last week. Kudos to him already wearing the company logo.
All in all, it was a good time and a colorful event. Thanks for putting up with this section of the Buzz and me in general for the last few years.
Good morning. Just got back from filling out my women's lacrosse bracket. In it for the big bucks.
Anyway, we'll get to the highly-anticipated women's lacrosse game tomorrow. But yesterday, it was the women's tennis team's turn.
Nice job to take the doubles point from Wake Forest, but four straight singles losses rendered the last two ongoing matches moot.
But the bigger news comes from the real world, or should I say the screwed-up world of Scott Ward.
The 64-year-old kiddie perv was sentenced to 15 years with no parole yesterday.
The ex-Wharton prof was in possession of materials showing children engaged in sex with each other and with Ward himself.
Here's hoping this sicko's next 15 years go by really slowly and that when he gets out, his "Little Scottie" doesn't work anymore.
On Sunday, I wrote that I questioned catching a fly ball in foul territory in the bottom of the eighth of a scoreless game with less than two outs and a runner on third.
That play cost the Quakers Game 1 of the Ivy League Championship Series against Brown. But I was only going off of the boxscore, and I admitted that I hadn't seen the play. So now I give you the view of someone who did, Athletic Communications' Matt Kirsch.
"I think if you asked anyone there they would've thought Steve Gable was going to make a strong throw to the plate. It was a very shallow hit ball and I was actually shocked that the runner tagged. But he had to catch it because it was so close to the line that if he let it drop, it could've landed in fair territory. Even though the official score was a foul pop, it just as easily could've been scored a fair pop up. That's how close it was."
So I guess then the credit goes to Brown's runner for trying the scoring attempt and making it. It's a tough way to lose, but that happens in baseball sometimes.
Now that we've lost two more Quakers teams from playoff contention, it's time to look at what some guys are doing after college.
Despite a disappointing 5-5 season, Penn football players Chris Mizell and Sean Estrada are still gunning for another championship, they're just looking in different directions.
Mizell has been signed by the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Instead of playing in the Arena Football League, where tight ends (as well as running backs) don't exist in the 50-yard field, he'll have a chance to utilize his skills in the 110-yard long CFL.
Estrada, on the other hand, will get his shot with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, where he will fight to impress the team enough to get offered a contract. The former Penn All-Ivy guard (who will likely enter the 49ers minicamp as a center) has always been a San Francisco fan, and was often seen walking around campus in a 49ers hoodie.
The co-captain anchored what Penn Athletics called "the best offensive line" in the Ivy League last season (despite Yale having two first-team All-Ivy picks) that lead the Ivies by allowing only one sack per game. The Quakers did, however, have the fourth-best scoring offense and the fifth-best rushing attack, despite having first-team All-Ivy runningback Joe Sandberg.
Some other notable Ivy players striving to play in the NFL are Princeton QB Jeff Terrell (Kansas City), Harvard RB Clifton Dawson (Indianapolis), Yale OT Ed McCarthy (Tampa Bay) and of course, fourth-round pick, Brown LB Zak DeOssie (New York Giants).
Now, just like The Spin tried to steal our Spring Fling weather previews from Levine, since they're out of commission for the summer, the burden has been placed on me to keep dailypennsylvanian.com readers informed about the May 15 democratic primary for Mayor of Philadelphia.
There were a lot of big fights this past week, Mayweather vs. De La Hoya in boxing, Chuck Liddell vs. Johnnie Drama on Entourage, and now what Michael Nutter called "WWF Smackdown" in the mayoral race.
With just over a week to go, former Councilman Nutter and Tom Knox are at the top of the polls, and the other three are trying to bring them down. At the ABC-televised debate, U.S. Rep Chaka Fattah broke his silence and his "nice guy" image. He began just about every answer with "Michael Nutter," questioning the Penn grad's passion for education and poverty.
Meanwhile, State Rep. Dwight Evans and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady are taking shots at Knox, who's running as the reform candidate against corruption. Evans started it off weeks ago by giving press burgers wrapped from Wendy's that resembled Knox's crime record -- no beef, just a bun.
Then on Friday night, Brady broke out a bombshell, asking why Knox not only gave campaign contributions to Republicans George W. Bush and former Senator Rick Santorum, and even holds stock in Halliburton. Knox, while he still looked like a gravedigger while saying it, came up with the clever reply that his wife, a Republican, gave that $1,500 in contributions (and she deserves to give money to whoever she wants), that he has so many stocks he doesn't know which he owns and that he, himself, has given over $500,000 to Dems.
Brady, even swifter, replied soon after: "Five hundred thousand dollars, I wonder whether that comes under pay-to-play."
While last night's WHYY debate was pretty tame, the final debate tonight, hosted by Hardball's (Philly native) Chris Matthews (NBC 10, 7 p.m.) is bound to be a barnburner.
Yesterday was not a good day for the Quakers, as both bat and ball sports were swept from Ivy League title contention.
Baseball, at Brown, lost Game 1 in a 1-0 heartbreak, as Penn was three-hit by Jeff Dietz. Ace Todd Roth was very good for the Quakers, but he allowed an unearned run in the eighth off a sacrifice fly to the second baseman in foul territory. I wasn't there, but I question catching a ball in foul territory in that spot unless you know you can throw the man out.
In Game 2, Ace No. 2 Jim Birmingham just didn't have it. He lasted just 1.2 innings, allowing a grand slam in each of the first two innings. Penn was down 11-0 after three, and never had a chance in a 20-6 loss. The Quakers end the season in disappointing fashion, at 20-19. Brown advances to the NCAA Tournament at 24-18.
Softball was at Harvard, and its trouble was offense. In Game 1, the Quakers were no-hit by the Crimson's Shelly Madick, and lost 4-0.
Penn fell behind Harvard 2-0 in Game 2, tied the score in the third, but then immediately gave up two more runs in the fourth. The Quakers had a few more chances to score, but couldn't, and lost 4-2.
The silver lining for Penn is that it finished at 23-19, the most wins in program history, and it was the first winning season since 1982.
For full coverage of this weekend's events, check out the graduation issue of the DP.
After a few years of discussion, the NCAA has approved moving back the men's three-point line a foot, to 20 feet, nine inches, beginning in 2008-09. The measure still has to pass another NCAA committee on May 25 before it is finalized.
I think this is a great move for college basketball, where almost anyone on every team shoots threes, which I think can sometimes cheapen the game. While it's still three feet shorter than the NBA three line, it's farther than the international line of 20'6". While this may not bring back the mid-range jump-shot, big men who shoot threes will have to either adjust their games to be able to hit the longer shot, or will have to work on their mid-range games more.
While runs sparked by threes are exciting, it sometimes feels that it's a gimmick for teams like VMI who shoot more threes than twos.
More importantly for Penn, I'm interested to see how the new line will affect the Princeton offense, which is designed around the three-point arc and shooting threes. The Tigers have struggled in recent years without big men who can shoot, and making the line farther will only make that harder. Also, with everyone now having to stand a foot farther back, there will be more space inside the line for the cuts to be made. We'll see what adjustments new coach Sydney Johnson makes.
Finally, the women's game decided not to change their line, leaving it at 19' 9", so there will have to be two lines, a foot apart, put on college basketball courts. Let's see how confusing that is for people, at least that first year.
OK buckle up and get comfortable, this might take a while.
First on the agenda is the text-messaging ban during recruiting that the NCAA recently adopted.
As Andrew Scurria wrote recently, the Ivy League proposed the ban. I was able to talk to some of the people involved in the proposal, and here's the low-down:
The League first proposed the ban (or an alternative severely limiting texting) last spring. It was reviewed by NCAA committees last summer, along with an alternate proposal by the NCAA Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet, which was supposed to limit the hours of the day that texting was allowed.
In January, the NCAA management council decided that only the Ivy proposal would go forward; the other one was too hard to enforce.
This is the league's reaction, courtesy of spokesperson Carolyn Campbell-McGovern:
"Our league as a whole was in favor of eliminiating text messaging or at least limiting it in some way so we're happy that the proposal will be adopted."
But what's more interesting is that she told me that the ban was orignally proposed by the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), meaning that it was students who came up with the ban.
I spoke to someone who was in on that original committee meeting, Penn softballer Julia Cheney.
She said that the biggest reason for the proposal was not out of some sort of moral outcry, but more because it was costing recruits too much money when coaches would text message them all the time.
Cheney also said that there was too much pressure to always have your phone around you and on, responding to coaches at all hours of the day, in class and at night, because athletes would feel that if they did not answer right away, the coach would lose interest.
"We felt an invasion of privacy," Cheney said. "It puts more pressure on student-athlete recruits than there needs to be."
Lastly, Cheney said that she is excited that the NCAA took a proposal by a SAAC seriously, and hopes that it sets an example for other student groups.
"That's pretty big for us," she said.
Up next on the docket is Penn's next chances for Ivy League titles, courtesy of the two ball/bat sports.
Softball got the help it needed in its weekend off, and won the inaugural Ivy League South Division with a 14-6 record, and will play either Harvard or Dartmouth this weekend in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series.
The New England teams will play a make-up doubleheader today at Dartmouth, with the Crimson needing one win of three to take the title. The two teams also have a suspended game, tied 4-4 in the fifth, to make up. If Harvard wins two games, it will host Penn, if not the Quakers will host the series.
Penn's baseball team won the Gehrig Division by virtue of Princeton not quite being able to pull off a sweep of Cornell, losing Game 4 in extra innings. The Quakers are 12-8 in Ivy play, and will travel to Brown (14-6), winner of the Red Rolfe Division, for Saturday and Sunday's (if necessary) ILCS.
Finally, the men's tennis team had a little deja vu, losing a playoff to Columbia after dropping the final match of the season to the Lions. The Quakers will not get that Ivy title, and will have to wait and see if they get an NCAA Tournament bid.
Enjoy finals.
In this weekend's NFL Draft, one Ivy League player, Brown's Zak DeOssie, was taken in the fourth round, at 116 overall, by the New York Giants. (To see his NFL Network profile by Quakers basketball broadcasting legend Scott Graham, and complete with two nasty hits on Princeton QB Jeff Terrell, go to giants.com and click on the multimedia on the right side of the page.) And while there is usually one Ivy player who gets picked, a few as high as third- or fourth-rounders, the DeOssie pick has a lot of historical links.
Zak's father, Steve, was also a fourth-round pick by the Patriots at 110th pick overall, just six spots before where his son would go. Also, Zak was selected by New York, the team with which Steve won the 1990 Super Bowl.
Also, he will (provided he gets signed) play with former Penn runningback Jim Finn. DeOssie mainly keeps in contact with the former Bears in the NFL, wideouts Sean Morey (Arizona) and Chas Gessner (Tampa Bay), but said last week that he would be thrilled to play with Finn. "That would be hilarious," DeOssie said. "All the Ivy League guys know all the others in the League."
With the fourth-round selection, the Giants have now taken two Ivy Leaguers in the last six years -- a different Quakers star, center Jeff Hatch in 2002.
I guess the New York Giants go together with Penn football just as well as, well, New Yorkers going to Penn.
Just finished crunching the mileage numbers from the 113th edition of the Penn Relays, and here's what we've got.
Pre-Thursday: 2,588.56 miles
Thursday: 2,323.02
Friday: 939.37
Saturday: 1,079.02
So the total mileage run, racewalked and wheeled at Penn Relays comes to 6,929.97 miles. That would get you more than two full loops to Jamaica and back -- if you could figure out that tricky water jump.
Zachary Levine and Matt Meltzer went undefeated winning the Shafer Cup with a victory over Hirsch and Conrad in the finals. Bill Raftery and Gus Johnson with the call of Meltzer's game winning shot:
Johnson: "Here comes the All-America. Meltzer...six...fires! Got it!! He banked in a three."
Raftery: "ONIONS!!!!"
Johnson: "What a game!"
Raftery: "OOOH!"
Johnson: "Larry Bird? Maybe!"
Raftery: "Look at the clock and when you're sleepless in the large conference room, why not get a little....KISS! Gus! Oh! Major ONIONS! All on his own. Look at the contesting. Oh, what a smooch! Wooh! Wow!"
Johnson: "Crunch time you go to your best player."
Raftery: "This kid is extraordinary"
The Penn women's 4x800 team sported matching tattoos with the Penn athletic logo on their right shoulders, but it didn't help, as they finished some 25 seconds behind Michigan's new collegiate record (8:18.78).
Maybe they should start going for those high, colorful socks popular among the high school girls who ran in the 4x4.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines, who don't appear to be wearing socks at all, cleaned up in the 4x15 yesterday and broke that record as well.
For the first time ever a high school boys 4x100 team broke 40 seconds at the Relays as St. Jago of Jamaica sprinted to a 39.96 finish with Yohan Blake as the anchor.
In USA vs. the World events earlier in the afternoon, the Americans dominated the track. The USA Red men took the 4x100 in 38.35 and the women finished in 42.87 with Lauryn Williams anchoring.
Former Quakers Sam Burley and Courtney Jaworski each ran the third leg of the Olymic Development DMR for USA Blue and the All Star team, respectively. The All Stars pulled out the victory over USA Blue in 9.29:44, the first time an All Star team has won an event at the Relays.
After the race, Jaworski, running at the Relays for the first time after graduating last year, said that "not wearing the stripes was awkward", referring Penn's uniforms. In a bit of nostalgia, he also said he'd love to put on those stripes and run for Penn again. He mentioned that running against Burley, who Jaworski has trained with, was "more fun than competitive"
I just ducked out of the Relays, but I thought I'd pick up where Zachary left off and give a few quick highlights.
The Men's Championship of America DMR featured Villanova, as well as Ivies Princeton and Cornell, but it was Texas that took home its second straight win in the event at 9:29.60. Nova crossed the line second (9:32.00), after Texas' Leonel Manzano and Villanova's Robert Curtis dueled throughout the mile leg. Both had sub-4 minute mile splits, going 3:57.9 and 3:58.0, respectively. Texas, Nova, Tennesse and Michigan ran as a pack through a good portion of the race, trading the lead, after the group pulled ahead of the competition early on.
In the Masters Mixed 50 and older, the Athena team, broke a new American over 50 women's 4x400 record, finishing in 4:12.64, not too shabby. The trio of Loraine Jasper, Terri Rath and Joan Hunter who ran today along with Charmaine Roberts, also hold the 4x400 record in the 40-49 age group category.
The Penn men's 4x400 team took third in the Heps heat after anchor Sam Shepherd was passed by Princeton's Richard Stewart in the last 20 or so meters. Shepherd took the baton from Max Weston behind Cornell, who won in 3:13 flat, but quickly made up some ground and was right behind going into the last 100. After the race, Shepherd remarked that he didn't even hear Stewart behind him and that the ending was ironic. In a similar situation at the Relays last year, Stewart crept up on him, but Shepherd was able to hold him off.
Penn's men's 4x200m team earned a spot in the IC4A champs tomorrow. Race time is 2:35.
Let's hope for better weather tomorrow.....
The Ivy League got a big feather in its cap the other day when the NCAA voted to act on the recommendation of its advisory committee and ban the text messaging of athletic recruits until at least 2008.
But check out what one of Division I's higher-profile schools thinks of the ban:
"We were in the Division I assistant coaches committee meeting at the AFCA Convention, and the discussion about this proposal from the Ivy League was brought up," Southern Methodist University recruiting coordinator Eric Roark said. "Everybody was asking why the Ivy League was proposing such a drastic shift. They don't even recruit. They don't offer athletic scholarships. I think almost everybody agreed that proposal was idiotic."
Well thanks for that wonderful insight into Ivy League athletics, Mr. Roark. Among those pot shots at the Ivies, I think you gave some great insights into what assistant coaches want to make their lives easier.
Except that's not what the debate is about.
Now, I can't speak to what a bunch of assistant coaches -- whose careers are consumed by recruiting, often against other schools -- really thinks of the new statute, or of the Ivy League. But I think it would be an utter shame if an entirely reasonable response to a loophole in NCAA laws was villified by a perpetual "Ivy League proposal" tag -- or worse, if the Ivy League were villified by it.
The idea has been student-driven. No coaches ever complained about their texting bills being too high -- that was those being texted talking. Plus, the NCAA had its choice of two proposals to consider, and did not want to consider the more moderate of the two. It chose to vote on the all-or-nothing proposal, and that is what it got.
So from now on, let's not think of the NCAA's self-regulation as the baby of some renegade league of Northerners, but as the inevitable conclusion of an ongoing problem.
And just as an aside, I think this will help out the Ivies. One of the biggest problems Ivy coaches have is that, because those coaches' yield is much lower than scholarship programs, they must keep track of many more potential Quakers or Lions or Elis than their competitors. And since text-messaging is a universal activity for coaches, removing it will do nothing to increase their workloads, and Ivy coaches won't have to worry about keeping up one more mode of communication between recruits and themselves. Given the number of recruits they have to keep track of relative to their peers, they have a tough enough time already.
So for crying out loud, level the playing field -- for the coaches as well as the athletes.
And then, Mr. Roark, maybe the Ivies' recruiting will someday be up to your standards.
Yohan Blake and St. Jago didn't need to give their best effort, but they easily advanced in the Boys 4x100 this morning at Franklin Field.
Remember, this team is capable of 39.80, so we could be in for a fast one when eight teams take the track in better conditions tomorrow.
And if you're planning on coming down to The Frank this afternoon, be advised that we're about two hours delayed. That's it for me. I have some schoolwork to do and may even run a few miles of my own, but I'll be back Buzzing Saturday afternoon.
Rainy weather keeping you home from the Relays this morning? Not a problem, get your fix on the Web.
First stop on our literary tour is this humorous article about Yohan Blake, the Jamaican sensation whom you will see today and almost certainly tomorrow on St. Jago's 4x100-meter relay team. Find out why the sprinter, who's already run a 10.11 this year, has a career ahead of him in gynecology.
And your second must-read is Soft Pretzel Logic, Philly.com's version of The Buzz, this week all decked out with pictures for the Relays.
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