Several days from now, millions of Americans will participate in one of the nation's greatest traditions: midterm elections. With all of the focus on the big day, we thought now would be an appropriate time to jump on the political bandwagon. As a matter of fact, it seems our friends over in New Jersey have some pretty big races going on now.

For four years, senior Mike Loguidice has quarterbacked the Quakers. At 7 p.m. tonight, he will walk onto Franklin Field for the last time in Penn's sprint football match against Princeton (0-5). "As long as we win, that's the only way you want to go out," Loguidice said.

When the Quakers head to Princeton tomorrow, don't expect the atmosphere on the field to be warm and fuzzy. "They're Princeton, so we don't like them," Penn forward Molly Weir said. "There's always this tension, and it makes us want to beat them even more.

As the weather has gotten colder, the field hockey team has only gotten hotter. Penn (9-7, 4-2 Ivy) will carry its six-game winning streak into New Jersey tonight for its season finale against arch rival Princeton (10-6, 6-0). The Quakers have not lost in over a month, when a 2-1 defeat to Dartmouth effectively ended their Ivy League title hopes.

The Quakers set a new NCAA record for consecutive overtime games on Saturday when an unlikely fourth-quarter rally resulted in a game-tying touchdown.

For the Penn men's soccer team this weekend at Princeton, it's do and/or die. The Quakers (8-4-2, 4-1-1 Ivy) head into their final game of the regular season in need of a win and a Harvard loss or draw in order to win the Ivy League for the first time since 2002, when they shared the title with Dartmouth.

Walking around campus last weekend, it would've been difficult to not feel some Quakers pride. Countless red and blue balloons were wrapped around lampposts and hung from buildings. Crowds of alumni - young and old - wandered with smiles around College Green and down Locust Walk as they fondly recalled their warm memories at Penn.

Coach Glen Miller has yet to announce who will be on the floor at tip-off against the University of Texas at El Paso on Nov. 10. "I'm not one to label a starting team too early," Miller said. "There's still a lot of work to be done; we're still implementing the system and making progress there.

Swimming season starts on Saturday, but Penn has already conceded the title. In fact, the team couldn't care less about who wins the Ivy League crown. Instead of championships, the men are focused on team growth. Coach Mike Schnur knows his team can't beat Top-25 Harvard or defending-champion Princeton, but he is not giving up on the season.

Tim Strickland shocked the Penn faithful last year, picking off quarterback Pat McDermott twice and helping Princeton end almost a decade of football frustration against the Quakers in a 30-13 win. But the 6-foot-1, 190-pound strong safety's performance was no surprise to opposing coaches, who have watched Strickland wreak havoc on Ivy defenses from the moment of his arrival in Old Nassau.

Dear athletic director Steve Bilsky: Sixteen days from now, the men's basketball team will have its first Palestra tip-off of the 2006-07 season. Like many Penn students, that day cannot come soon enough for me. However, too many students do not know that day is coming at all.

Lepisto and Carre have over 450 yards each, while no other WR has eclipsed century mark.

After falling out of Ivy contention, the field hockey team has quietly won six in a row.

Last Saturday, all sprint football kicker Pete Stine could do was watch from the stands as his former varsity teammates squandered opportunities, leading to an overtime loss to Brown that was ultimately decided in a kicking contest. But head football coach Al Bagnoli still has some tricks up his sleeve.

After surgery and a long recovery, Lauren Pears is back for her senior season and ready to help lead Penn women's basketball back to respectability after a dismal 5-22, 3-11 Ivy record last year. Pears, leading the Quakers in nearly every statistical category through the first eight games of last season, tore her ACL against American in December.

If the Penn women's swimming team fulfills its expectations this year, it will shatter the Quakers' record books. After achieving the best Ivy finish in Penn history last year, this year's team returns 10 school record holders. Also, the loss of only one senior to graduation coupled with the team's highly touted freshman class means that the sky's the limit.

Two seasons ago, Glen Miller said the following after a win at Yale: "I think we all wish, except for a few teams in our league, that we had a postseason tournament. It's frustrating that we don't have one." Last week at the Red and Blue Scrimmages at the Palestra, Miller was asked what he thought about an Ivy League tournament.