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(10/22/98 9:00am)
Junior Sean MacMillan finished seventh overal to lead the Quakers in Oregon. The top three finishers for the Penn men's cross country team all crossed the line in the top 10 this past Saturday at the Oregon Invitational. Then they awaited the arrival of their next teammate. Unfortunately for the Quakers, they had to wait for well over a minute. The team captured fifth place out of the 12 squads in the race. Junior Sean MacMillan once again led the Quakers with a seventh-place finish and a time of 24:33. One second and one place behind him was Penn captain Scott Clayton. Rounding out the list of top 10 finishers was sophomore Bryan Kovalsky, in 10th with a time of 24:43. All three broke the 25-minute mark and beat most of the keen West Coast competition. One minute, 13 seconds later, freshman Anthony Ragucci joined the other three at the finish line in his best race of the year thus far. He managed to garner only 35th place in 25:56. "I think the overall team performance wasn't good," Clayton said. "The gap between the top three and the rest of the team was really big." Once again the health of the Quakers played a decisive roll in their performance. "I think that gap just closes up if our guys are healthy," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. Both freshman Matt Gioffre and junior Mark Granshaw, who have provided solid fourth- and fifth-place performances throughout the season, had health troubles on Saturday. Granshaw dropped to sixth on the team, having finished the race in 26:06. Coach Powell pointed to stomach problems as a reason for his somewhat disappointing performance. Gioffre had a lackluster race, and he was only able to place eighth on the team with a time of 26:42. "I just felt out of it during the race," Gioffre said. "Midway through the first mile, I knew I was going to have trouble." He had complained of both sore calves and flu-like symptoms for the week before the trip to Oregon. When he returned to Penn on Sunday night, he paid a visit to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and was diagnosed with a staph infection. Gioffre is slated to resume practice today. The field in Oregon was full of quality runners. Washington State standout and 1997 All-American Bernard Legat won the race handily with a time of 24:04. "He just ran the first two miles and spent the rest of the race looking back at the field," Clayton said. Despite Penn's top-heavy final tally, the team did fare well against some high-caliber western teams. "We beat Nebraska, a team that a lot of people think is pretty good," Powell said. "We proved -- our top guys especially -- that we can run with just about anybody." The trip to the left coast was also fun for the Quakers. "We got to get to the Pacific Ocean and basically had a good time," MacMillan, who continued in his speedy ways on Saturday, said. Penn's most important race of the season looms in the near future. On October 30, the Quakers will travel to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx for the Heptagonal Championships. Heps will provide the team with one more opportunity to face off against a host of rivals, including Navy and all the members of the Ivy League. "I don't think this weekend changes our outlook for Heps," Powell said. "If we have any hopes of winning, we're going to need great races from at least seven guys. We're not 12-deep like teams like Oregon." The Quakers are not pillars of confidence right now, but they do believe they have a shot on October 30. "Individually, we've all had really good races over the course of the season. We just need to pull it together for Heps," Ragucci said. The Quakers have the upcoming weekend off, and it could not have come at a better time. With Gioffre fighting an illness and junior Jason Greene still nursing a sprained ankle, the team needs time to heal. The Red and Blue will take it somewhat easy for the remainder of this week. But next week they will have an opportunity to focus on peaking workouts aimed at readying the squad for Heps.
(10/16/98 9:00am)
The Penn men's cross country team will be running on hallowed ground this coming Saturday -- Pre's Trails. The Quakers leave today for Eugene, Ore., home of the Oregon Invitational. The race will be held at Eugene's Alton Baker Park. Pre's Trails, located within the park, is named in honor of Steve Prefontaine. The former University of Oregon superstar is considered the last great American distance runner. Greatness will not only be in the air but will also greet the Quakers at the starting line. "We have the opportunity to face teams that we would never really race against," Penn junior captain Scott Clayton said. "Oregon is definitely one of the best teams in the nation." Not only will Oregon -- ranked No. 3 in the most recent NCAA coaches' poll -- be vying for the lead of this 19-team field, but Washington State and Nebraska will also put up a fight. "What I need from my team is a a competitive effort where we just go out and bang," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "It has to be a concentrated, aggressive, take-it-to-'em race." Oregon is a dominant squad. The Ducks shot up seven places in this week's polls on the heels of an impressive second-place finish at the Pre-NCAA Invitational held in Lawrence, Kan. Oregon's Matthew Davis finished sixth among a field of eight returning All-Americans, out of the top 15, and Ducks junior Steve Fein was 10th in the ultra-competitive race. The Ducks were second only to Stanford, the nation's consensus No. 1. Clayton jokingly remarked that "Stanford proved that Oregon is a beatable team." The Quakers can, however, look forward to more than a moral victory this weekend. The Ducks are not fielding the same varsity team that they did last week. Davis and Fein will take the race off, as will the other seven runners who paced the team in Kansas. "If they're not running their 'A' guys, winning becomes a real possibility," junior Sean MacMillan said. MacMillan, who has led the Quakers in each of the season's four meets, has a realistic chance to finish near the head of the pack on Saturday. "I feel really good. There's a guy from Washington State and a bunch of other people that are going to take it out fast," MacMillan said. "I just need to stay with them." The Washington State runner is All-American Bernard Lagat -- last year's Pac 10 champion and the favorite going into this weekend. "He's competing for the national championship," Clayton said. "If he goes out really fast, that's fine, we'll just stay tight with the rest of the pack." Powell has never taken his team to the the West Coast before, except for the NCAA championship. "If you want to have any shot of winning an at-large bid to nationals, you have to show you can beat teams that are out of you district," Powell said. "Also, when you're racing the same teams every week, a pecking order develops. I want to give my guys a chance to break out of that." Powell has elected to take 10 Quakers on the trip. This constitutes Penn's smallest roster of the season to date. For the Quakers to succeed this weekend and to defeat the host Ducks and others, a solid effort must come from the Penn top five. Sophomore Brian Kovaleski, consistently the team's third man, seems poised to improve coming off what he described as a "winning" workout on Tuesday. Injuries hampered the Quakers last weekend. Junior Jason Greene's sprained ankle forced him to leave the race at Penn State. Greene will run on Saturday but will not be 100 percent, as his ankle will need to be taped up for the race. Freshman Matt Gioffre's calves also appear to be almost back to snuff. The course in Eugene promises to be fun for the Quakers. "It's a real cross country course," Powell said. "You run across a creek, and there're some hay bales to jump over."
(10/13/98 9:00am)
The Quakers were fourth at Penn State, beating their rival in the process. The Penn men's cross country team once again proved the time-honored adage that Penn is not Penn State. This past Saturday, the Quakers travelled to Happy Valley and outperformed the Nittany Lions and seven other squads by earning fourth place in the Penn State Invitational. In the process, Penn defeated Heptagonal rival Navy for the first time in 1998 and encouraged hope for the crucial three remaining meets of the season. "We felt good after the race," Penn junior captain Scott Clayton said. "I think we're in much better position than we were a few weeks ago." Junior Sean MacMillan galvanized the Quakers' effort. He was third in the entire race, navigating the 5.2-mile course in 25:58. He was once again Penn's top finisher, and has led the team in each of the four meets of the season. "Sean's legs weren't even feeling as good as they were last week," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "He still managed to put in a really solid performance." Clayton was impressive with an 11th place finish and a time of 26:17. Sophomore Bryan Kovalsky crossed the line 17th with a solid 26:33. Matt Lane of William and Mary, a top-20 finisher at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 1997 and this weekend's winner, was one of only two competitors to get the best of MacMillan. "The only other guy to beat me was an unattached runner. He must have been 30 years old," MacMillan said. "I think I have a decent shot to win Heps right now." MacMillan has good reason for enthusiasm. He defeated all the runners that Dartmouth, Navy and West Virginia have to offer. "He's just getting to it. He's bound to be one of the favorites at the Heptagonal Championships," Powell said. The Quakers headed into Saturday with the expressed purpose of besting Navy and Dartmouth. They were partially successful. Penn defeated the Midshipmen 105 to 108. Dartmouth, however, overpowered the Quakers by 46 points. "Beating Navy makes us feel like we can take on teams in the upper level of our conference," Clayton said. Dartmouth's sizable margin of victory over the Quakers is misleading since injuries plagued Penn. "If it weren't for the injuries to Jason Greene and Matt Gioffre, we would have been about 15 points behind Dartmouth," MacMillan said. Greene failed to finish the race due to a nagging sprained ankle. His personal best at the Paul Short Invitational last week was integral to the Penn effort. Freshman Gioffre, who also set a personal record one week ago, was hampered by sore calves and finished a good distance in back of junior Mark Granshaw. "I realize that I need to step up and be a more solid fifth man," Gioffre said. "My calves were bothering me, but I need to improve on this race." Improvement over this weekend is still a very real possibility. Sophomore Bryan Kovalsky, who was voted top freshman at the Heptagonal Championships last year, has yet to string together an excellent race. "Kovalsky's upset about some of his race tactics. He's still pretty disappointed," Clayton said. If Kovalsky is able to put together a stellar race and both Gioffre and Greene are healthy, the Quakers can significantly better Saturday's result. Now is the time of the season for the Quakers to begin to run on all cylinders. Looming in the near future are the Heptagonal Championships on October 30 and the District Championships on November 14. Nine or 10 members of the Penn squad will board a flight early Friday bound for Eugene, Ore., and the Oregon Invitational. This meet will pit the Quakers against nationally elite teams which they do not normally face. "It'll be a nice change," Clayton said. "We'll be able to see where we are against some really great teams." The Quakers' practice schedule will begin with a long, moderately paced run on Monday. Tuesday will see an intense speed-oriented workout followed by relatively short workouts to end the week.
(10/08/98 9:00am)
It's very tough to beat an opponent that you can't see. The Penn men's cross-country team ran into just such a problem this past Saturday at the Paul Short Invitational. The huge field of nearly 300 varsity runners prevented the Quakers from zeroing in on rival teams. "With 42 teams in the race, you have a hard time knowing who it is that's running in front of you," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "There must have been four teams with gold jerseys, and there must have been at least a dozen teams with white jerseys. When you're behind a guy, you don't know where he's from." This coming Saturday promises to present a decidedly different set of conditions. The Quakers will travel to State College, Pa., to race against a much more manageable field of 10 other teams in the Penn State Invitational. "We're going out on Saturday to race against Navy and Dartmouth," junior standout Sean MacMillan said. "We can really see what we've got." The Penn runners eagerly anticipate Saturday's meeting with Dartmouth. In the most recent NCAA coaches' poll, Dartmouth ranked 29th, two spaces behind Heptagonal leader Princeton. The Quakers have not yet seen the Big Green in action this season, but confidence rides high. "We're aiming for Dartmouth. We know that we have enough to beat them," sophomore Bryan Kovalsky said. While Penn hasn't seen Dartmouth, The Red and the Blue have so far only seen Navy from behind. The Midshipmen edged out Penn on their own course at the Navy Quadrangle in Annapolis, Md., September 12 and handily defeated the Quakers this past Saturday, 212-280. "We've raced Navy a bunch of times now and we have a good idea of where our guys should be in relation to them," MacMillan said. Navy boasts no dominant runners. Last weekend, MacMillan's 20th place finish was seven spots higher than any Navy runner. If the Quakers are able to string together a performance in which at least three other runners excel, a victory over the team from Annapolis is well within reach. MacMillan, who has paced the Quakers in every meet thus far, also has some individual concerns this weekend. He has hopes of securing an individual bid to the national championship and needs to start setting his sights at his individual competition. "There's a guy named [Steve] Bohan from West Virginia who was right ahead of me last week. I need to keep an eye on guys like him," MacMillan said. On Tuesday, most of the squad ran a series of four one-mile runs with a 100-meter jog-rest in between. The brisk pace of those miles may signal that the Quakers are discovering fresh legs in early October. For example, MacMillan's four miles were all under 4:40. "We're right where we want to be. I'd say we're almost perfect training-wise," Powell said. The schedule for the week has been challenging but not overly grueling. Monday saw the Quakers log 14 miles at a moderate, steady pace. Wednesday's practice was a quick six miles. The course at Penn State will be the longest the Quakers have faced this season. Rather than the customary five-mile distance, the course in Happy Valley will take the 11 regional teams along 5.2 miles. "That's not really going to make a difference. The times will just be a little higher," Powell said. If the weather forecast holds up for Saturday, Penn's times promise to be markedly faster than the last time the Quakers traveled to State College. The last time the Quakers visited Penn State, Nov. 15, 1997, they raced in the regional championship. When they arrived that morning, they found a course blanketed in three inches of snow. As a result, the race was a sloppy mess and no times were up to snuff. "I guarantee our times will be faster than that meet," Powell said. That guarantee will be easy to meet, but it will take much more than that to outstrip Navy and Dartmouth on Saturday.
(10/06/98 9:00am)
The Penn men's cross country team placed 12th in a very fast race. Elation proved short-lived on Saturday after the members of the Penn men's cross-country team finished the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa. Six of the seven Quakers runners finished the race with their fastest times ever, as four of them broke the 25 minute mark. The team had run its best race of the year, and they were proud of it. Then the the results came in. Despite its impressive effort, Penn was only able to manage a 12th place finish. National and regional powers alike had gotten the best of the Quakers. "We were not disappointed in our performance at all. I just think we were all a little shocked by how fast everybody [the rest of the field] ran," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. The Quakers had good reason to be shocked. Junior Sean MacMillan once again led the Red and Blue with a personal record of 24:20.48. Last year, the time would have catapulted him to the very head of the field. This year, however, MacMillan earned only 20th place in a field of nearly 300 runners. "Five guys broke the course record. Before Saturday, my time would have been the fourth best ever on that course," MacMillan said. Leading the field of record breakers was Todd Snyder of Michigan who clocked in at 23:44.15. Michigan and Michigan State tied for the win with both teams amassing only 90 points. Two of Penn's rival squads, Princeton and Navy, continue to excel as well. They took fifth and sixth, respectively. Following MacMillan, junior captain Scott Clayton finished 46th in 24:40.79. Sophomore Bryan Kovalsky (24:51.77) edged out junior Mark Granshaw (24:53.65) with the two finishing 61st and 67th, respectively. Junior Jason Greene and freshman Matt Gioffre rounded out the list of Quakers to run the fastest races of their lives by finishing within a second of one another at 25:08.52 and 25:08.74, respectively. "It was just perfect. You had everything. It was about 50 degrees. It was overcast. That's part of the reason why everybody was so fast," Powell said. The pace on Saturday was consistently fast. The Quakers needed to log the year's best times just to keep with the pack. An astounding five runners were able to negotiate the five-mile course in under 24 minutes. "It wasn't like it was a crazy pace from the start," Clayton said. "It just began at a four and a half minute pace and stayed there." Penn held its own against the competition on Saturday. Ivy rival Brown surprised the Quakers, but only narrowly defeated them by a tally of 255 to 280. Just ahead of the Bears were West Virginia and Mount St. Mary's, both Mid-Atlantic region powers. The race was so large and so tightly-packed in the front that an improvement of mere seconds would have significantly changed the Quakers' final result. "A funny thing about this race is that two or three guys could have moved up a bunch of spaces if they had just run maybe two seconds faster," Powell said. Junior Mark Granshaw, for example, could have finished ahead of six more runners if he had improved his 24:53.65 by a mere two seconds. Although Penn was not able to shock the cross-country world on Saturday, the team was not outclassed by any means. They remain in a position where big things can happen come the league and regional championships. "Right now I'd say we're sixth or seventh in our region and around fourth in our league," Clayton said. "We can do better." This week the team will begin focusing on what Powell calls "sharpening." As a result, the road mileage will once again diminish as the squad hopes to freshen up its legs. "Anybody who's disappointed in Saturday is not focusing on the right things," Powell said. "People that are in the know in this sport realize that we're a dangerous group."
(10/02/98 9:00am)
The Penn men's cross country team will inadvertently imitate the anti-hero of Yeats' The Second Coming by slouching toward Bethlehem tomorrow with hopes that its time has come round to take on the nation's elite cross country squads. The team will travel to Bethlehem, Pa., tomorrow to race against 42 other cross country teams in the ultra-competitive Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh. "This is without a doubt our toughest race so far," Penn head coach Charlie Powell said. "There will be four teams there who are in the top 20.? It's just hard-core competition." The Quakers come off their first free weekend of the season and are still riding high from their first-place finish at Delaware two weekends ago. The course and size of the field on Saturday will certainly test the Quakers' resolve. "It's a very fast course. It's basically pretty flat," junior Sean MacMillan, whose times have led the Quakers in the first two meets of the season, said. "There are just some rolling hills." The relatively flat course, which will take the nearly 300 runners across cornfields, promises to make the race extremely fast-paced from the start. "You're going to have something like 12 All-Americans in this race, and they're all going to be gunning for each other," Powell said. "It's going to be tough from start to finish. If you don't stay focused, you'll just get lost in a crowd." Two weeks ago in the Delaware Invitational, a much smaller meet, Penn was able to bunch up from the beginning of the race and transform the five-mile contest into a three-mile event. The field at Paul Short will be much too large and much too illustrious for the Quakers to dominate early. "This is not going to be a sit-and-kick race. We'll need to focus for the whole five miles," MacMillan said. National powerhouses such as Michigan, Michigan State and North Carolina will greet the Quakers on the starting line tomorrow. Additionally, the field will boast Mt. St. Mary's and Georgetown, both regional pace-setters, as well as Ivy rivals Princeton, Brown and Cornell. Powell will select a varsity group of seven to combat these juggernauts. The seven will be Clayton, MacMillan, sophomore Bryan Kovalsky, freshman Matt Gioffre, junior Mark Granshaw, senior John Horrocks and junior John Krol. The field's depth will doubtlessly demand the fastest times of the year from the Quakers. "There's no way you can expect to be near the top 10 and not be under 25 minutes," junior captain Scott Clayton said. No Quakers have broken the 25 minute barrier yet this year. MacMillan, Clayton and Kovalsky led the squad at Delaware with 26:12, 26:16 and 26:23, respectively. Still, now is the the time of the year when times usually start to drop significantly. "In cross country, you usually start to feel a lot fresher in October. You tend to be pretty tired throughout September. Your legs just feel a lot better now," Clayton said. This past week marked a departure from the schedule the Quakers have been keeping throughout the season thus far. The road mileage was less intense, and for the first time in the season, the hardest workout of the week will come on race day. "I just wanted to get our guys ready for this race," Powell said. "For some of them, it's their first race this big. For others, they haven't had this kind of pressure since last year. They just gotta get going again." This week has done much to get the team ready for tomorrow. Before practice on Thursday, they appeared loose and determined. They are a disciplined bunch who are ready to take it to the next level. The Quakers will not control tomorrow's race, but they have a chance to attract national attention. They can greatly improve on their No. 38 ranking in the NCAA coaches' poll. "If some of our top guys run a perfect race, we can definitely be up there at the top," Powell said. It may be a very rough beast which slouches toward Bethlehem tomorrow.
(09/30/98 9:00am)
The Penn men's soccer team finally notched its first victory with a 1-0 defeat against Temple yesterday at Rhodes Field. and Andrew McLaughlin Good things come to those who wait. After losing four of their first five games by one goal, the Penn men's soccer team finally turned the tables with its first victory of the '98 season yesterday afternoon, 1-0 over Temple. The Quakers (1-5, 0-2 Ivy League) went into their first home match against the Owls (1-6-1) with high hopes, and this time -- unlike the previous five -- they did not come away empty-handed. Quakers junior striker Reggie Brown knocked home a cross from senior tri-captain Jared Boggs in the ninth minute for the only goal that the team would need on the day. "Jared [Boggs] was coming down the line, and I knew he was going to serve it up, so I moved in," Brown said. "He kicked a hard line drive, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." While the Quakers offense broke through for its first goal in over 180 minutes of play, the real star of this game was junior keeper Michael O'Connor. "Michael O'Connor was spectacular in the net for us," Quakers head coach Rudy Fuller said. The tri-captain recorded nine saves, including a crucial sliding block on an attempt by Owls senior Ray Destephanis with under five minutes to play. The solid play of the Quakers' back line took a lot of pressure off the team's offense, which in turn stepped up to take 18 shots on the day. This was a major improvement from the Quakers meager seven-shot output in last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at the hands of Cornell. Junior midfielder David Bonder led a balanced Red and Blue attack with four shots on goal. A total of 10 Quakers, including two freshmen, were able to direct at least one ball toward Temple keeper Phil Pizzano. Still, the team's offensive performance yesterday left something to be desired. "No, I don't think that it was our sharpest game," Fuller said. "I thought we scored a good goal, but I don't think [the offense] was sharp for 90 minutes." Coming into yesterday, Temple had a minus-16 goal differential, and was by far the least highly touted opponent that Penn has faced thus far. But the Owls put forth a scrappy, physical effort in defeat. "They're a hard-working team, a bit chippy, but we didn't move the ball around quick enough," Fuller said. "If you move it around, the physical play doesn't matter because they can't keep up with you." Temple emerged fired-up for the second half, and played a very physical final 45 minutes. This style of play contributed to the Quakers receiving two yellow cards, one each by Jason Karageorge and Henry Chen, and committing 21 fouls to 18 for the undersized Temple squad. "Sometimes when you play a blue-collar team that's not as skillful as some others, you tend to play down to their level," O'Connor said. "I think it was in our end [in the second half] a little too much for my sanity." The last 20 minutes of the game were marked by an abundance of quality chances for the underdog Owls. O'Connor and the rest of the Quakers defense truly earned their first shutout of the season with tenacious marking as the game clock wound down. "I was hoping that we could close the door a little earlier -- [but] I don't think we ever really did close that door," Fuller said. With this win, the Quakers gained sorely needed momentum heading into this Saturday's match with Ivy rival Harvard. "We needed to get the first win on the board, especially with a game like Harvard this weekend," Fuller said. "We have a good test on Saturday, and we've got a good shot at it." Despite the win, the team, however, realizes that they have to be less tolerant of sloppy play against the Crimson. "The speed of the game was off at times. Some of our passing was off at times. We lost some of our sharpness at times," Boggs said. "We can't do [any of] that against Harvard or we'll get punished for it."
(09/28/98 9:00am)
The Penn women's soccer team recorded its sixth straight shutout. The Penn women's soccer team held Cornell scoreless for 120 hard-fought minutes in Ithaca on Saturday but had to accept its first minor setback of the season in the form of a 0-0 draw. The two-hour contest ended with a flurry of activity at the Cornell (1-3-1, 0-1-1 ) end. Big Red sophomore back Kelly McCutcheon stopped a potential goal in the 89th minute by sending the ball out of the goal mouth. Another Penn (5-0-1, 0-0-1 Ivy League) chance came in the last 30 seconds of regulation. "We had been down at their end for a good while. There was a corner. It came out to about the 18 [meter mark], and one of our players just sent it over the top," senior tri-captain Lindsey Carson said. Truly quality chances were harder to come by during overtime. The defense of the two squads tightened, slowing the offensive flurry. Penn junior goalkeeper Annie Kluetmeier (5-0-1, 0.00 GAA) extended her own shutout streak to six games and to an astounding 570 minutes of soccer, but expressed disappointment following the game. "We were upset about the tie," Kluetmeier said. "We had some great opportunities, but goals just didn't go in for us." The game's statistics back up the claim of the Penn goalie. The Red and Blue outshot Cornell by a count of 26 to 12. Junior forwards Andrea and Jill Callaghan combined for 14 shots on goal, two more than the output of the whole Cornell team. Senior tri-captain Kelly Stevens, whose five goals put her near the top of the Ivies, chalked much of the problems with the Penn offense to simple chance. "Balls that would normally go in just didn't," she said. Chance, however, probably did not have as much to do with the outcome as the Big Red defense, which represented the Quakers' stiffest competition of the season thus far. "The strength of our opponent was a big difference [from the season's previous contests]," Carson said. "Every Ivy League team is going to be a tough game." The stunning part of Saturday's result is the zero sitting in the Quakers' tally box. The Penn offense has been nothing if not productive this season. Until Saturday, the Quakers were averaging 3.5 goals per game. The squad has also benefited from a balanced attack, with different players providing the scoring punch on any given day. Coming into this weekend, there was enthusiasm about the way Cornell's style of play would match up against Penn's. The Big Red's 3-4-3 setup was supposed to prevent them from keeping enough bodies back to contain the Quaker offense. Penn enthusiasm, however, proved misleading. "We were very well-defended. It was not as easy to get behind the players as it's been the rest of the season," Stevens said. Penn attackers forced Cornell sophomore keeper Meghan Cauzillo to make seven saves, but the Quakers' chances were more numerous. "We had a bunch of shots that were right at her, a bunch that were way off-line and a bunch that went right over the top," Carson said. Despite the minor setback in Ithaca, confidence still rides very high. "Overall, I think we played well on Saturday. I know we can play better and beat teams tougher than Cornell," Carson said. The women's soccer team will make the short trip to La Salle on Tuesday and, in the words of still flawless keeper Kluetmeier, "finish the month of September undefeated just like we planned." Undefeated, yes. But the Quakers didn't plan to tie their first Ivy League game.
(09/22/98 9:00am)
The team that runs together wins together. This past Saturday, the Penn men's cross country team garnered top honors at the Delaware Invitational by taking charge of the race from the start. "We kept together and basically made it into a three-mile race," Penn captain Scott Clayton said. Freshman Matt Gioffre believes the team running in a pack early in the race was beneficial. "It must have been frustrating for the other teams to see seven Penn guys in the lead through the two-mile point," Gioffre said. This weekend's victory marked a one spot improvement from last week's second place finish at the Navy Quadrangle. On their way to victory, the Penn runners edged out Ivy rival Columbia by two points, 27 to 29. For the second consecutive week, junior Sean MacMillan paced the Penn squad by finishing the five-mile distance in 26:12. Close behind him were Clayton and sophomore Bryan Kovalsky, with times of 26:16 and 26:23, respectively. These top three efforts earned the Quakers third, fourth and fifth places. According to both Clayton and MacMillan, the decisive effort in Saturday's contest came from junior Mark Granshaw. He passed three runners in the final mile to secure Penn's margin of victory with a 26:43 time, which earned him eighth place. "Mark was in a position to step up and to be the man, and he did it," said Penn coach Charlie Powell. Gioffre finished seventh, and his fellow first-year runner Anthony Ragucci came in 13th in only their second college race. While finishing ahead of the other eight teams at the race was an accomplishment, the Quakers take most pride in edging out Columbia. The Lions were fresh off the heals of a first-place finish in the Lafayette Invitational on September 12. "It was nice to beat a team that was definitely confident," Clayton said. "It's time for us to become contenders rather than a team on the outside looking in." The list of Quakers atop the results sheet this past weekend was quite similar to the list from last week's race at Navy. Powell agreed that the "group of four up front" seems to be solidifying. Clayton, MacMillan, Kovalsky and Gioffre are set to lead the squad. "We have a bunch of guys that can step up every week. Jay [junior Jason Greene], Mark Granshaw and John Horrocks can all be big factors," Powell said. There were significant differences between the victory at Delaware and the runner-up finish at Navy. "This week, we kept everybody's head together," Clayton said. "Some people went out too fast at Navy." Powell thinks that the team's relative youth played a role in coming out slower at the first meet. The Quakers are a young team, as no senior played a prominent role in this weekend's victory. The team is enthusiastic about the chance of improving as the year goes on. "Most of our times can get much better. Once we start doing some speed work, we'll get even faster," MacMillan, whose times have led the team thus far, said. Powell is optimistic about the team's chances for improvement, but he estimates that the time to do some real speed work is still far off. "Winning an invitational or beating a team that you maybe aren't supposed to beat, these are just small steps," Powell said. The long-distance specialists of Penn's cross country team are very preoccupied with steps right now, a whole bunch of steps. "The younger guys should be running about 75 to 85 miles a week," Powell said. "The older guys aim for 80 to 100. It sounds like a whole lot for normal people." The members of men's cross country have no meet this coming weekend, but they never have a weekend off.
