From the moment he opened The Daily Pennsylvanian upon visiting Penn's campus for the first time, Ken Rosenthal knew he had found the launching pad for his budding career in sports journalism. After four years at the DP, Rosenthal graduated Penn with an English degree in 1984 and embarked on a journey that eventually led him to his current posts as a columnist for Foxsports.

For the Penn track team, this is the most wonderful time of the year. Senior captain Jesse Carlin said Penn Relays are "like Christmas." Women's head coach Gwen Harris said, "I've been coming to Penn Relays since I was a kid. It is one of the best meets there is.

Lawyers for the family of Anne Ryan have dropped punitive damage charges from their malpractice lawsuit against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Ryan, a College sophomore, died of meningitis last September after being misdiagnosed by Student Health and HUP physicians.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School senior Mike Alleman may be the defending champion when the high-school shot putters take to Franklin Field on Friday afternoon - but he's not the favorite. Instead, Nick Vena, a freshman at Morristown High School in Morristown, N.

Trindon Holliday has always had his doubters. The football coaches at Duke and Louisana-Lafayette thought the 5-foot-6 running back was too small to play big-time college ball. His mother prevented him from getting on the gridiron until seventh grade for fear of her son's well-being.

Alicia Puglionesi is a College junior from Havertown, Pa. Her e-mail address is puglionesi@dailypennsylvanian.com.

Photos by Mustafa Al-ammar, Rachel Baye, Ivona Boroje, and Alvin Loke

When the men's lacrosse team had a coaching vacancy after assistant Todd Cavallaro bolted for the head job at Franklin & Marshall, Penn decided to keep it in the family - literally. Cavallaro's replacement was Matt Heiderman, former Georgetown standout and brother to Penn junior midfielder Garvey.

Hometown chance sparks coach's exit Men's basketball assistant coach Chris Sparks is leaving Penn to return to his alma mater. Sparks will coach at Wilbraham & Monson Academy, a Massachussetts prep school, after two years under Glen Miller in Philadelphia, and another at Brown.

I kind of felt like I'd been there before. Maybe it was the shameless opportunists selling Obama '08 buttons - one for $2, three for $5 (how could I pass one up?) I guess they did sort of remind me of those annoying venders hawking foam fingers and pennants along Yawkey Way and Lansdowne Street.

Leslie King is looking for "city bragging rights." Even though the Quakers' Ivy League Championship hopes have come and gone, they still have plenty for which to play. Penn (21-19) will face city rival Drexel (21-16) at home today in a doubleheader at Warren Field.

After six long weeks of campaigning, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has won the Pennsylvania primary. According to exit polls, undecided voters - many of them white and concerned with the economy - were crucial in Clinton's win, handing her a much-needed victory over Sen.

Saving someone's life may start with something as simple as a cheek swab. Wharton freshman Andrew Brodsky is living proof. Diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 16, Brodsky received a bone marrow transplant that saved his life. His donor - a close to perfect genetic match - was a male living in New York who had his cheek swabbed at a bone marrow registry drive that his fraternity organized at Northwestern University.

Nanotechnology - a field that involves manipulating matter on the atomic scale - is helping scientists reshape the technological world by making things smaller and smaller. At Penn, though, the attention being paid to nanotechnology has never been bigger. So when the state announced earlier this month it was giving a $3.

There are over 250 races at this year's Penn Relays, but you ought to focus on a two-foot pool of water. The crowd starts forming when they pour the first drop. It'll balloon into the thousands. (Get there early. There're only so many seats around a puddle.

A few years ago, Penn men's track coach Charlie Powell was ushering Arkansas track coach John McDonnell through Weightman Hall to the press room. A security guard stopped them and said that McDonnell wasn't allowed past. "His team just won the distance medley, and I'm taking him to the press room," Powell explained.

It's time to give this city some control over its own gun laws. Mayor Nutter and the City Council recently passed tougher firearms restrictions designed to fight Philadelphia's homicide problem. But thanks to a 1974 state law, Nutter's new gun law policies are probably unconstitutional, because only the state legislature has the right to regulate firearms.