Somebody's going to set a record this weekend, and it ain't gonna be Penn. With the Quakers getting their third straight overtime loss last week, that weight is lifted from their shoulders. The one making the history this week will be Harvard running back Clifton Dawson.

For a Columbia team that struggled to win four Ivy League games last year, a season opener at Cameron Indoor might seem like a cruel joke. But no matter how lopsided the matchup seems, the Lions are in fact scheduled to play the No. 12 Blue Devils in the first round of Duke's College Basketball Experience tournament.

Harvard football coach Tim Murphy has seen Penn's last three games. He saw the missed kicks, the botched snaps and the porous defense. He wasn't fooled. "They're just a couple of plays away from being in the position that Yale's in," undefeated in the Ivies, Murphy said.

Last time the men's cross country team visited Lock Haven, Pa., it placed five runners in the top 10 and earned first overall. The Quakers will be looking for similar success when they return there tomorrow - only this time, the stakes will be much higher.

Coming out of Philadelphia's Simon Gratz High School last year, Malik Alvin had an important decision to make. With Temple and La Salle recruiting him, the basketball star definitely had the opportunity to play close to home. A look at some prominent alumni of the Nicetown school might have shown that it was a no-lose situation.

By Sebastien Angel The Daily Pennsylvanian Syracuse, N.Y. -- With about four minutes to play and Penn and UTEP tied at 60, Ibrahim Jaaber collected his fifth foul. So when the Quakers needed a basket down one with under a minute to play, the burden fell to sophomore Aron Cohen.

For the first time in a month, the Quakers football team played a game that ended in regulation. And also for the first time in a month, Penn won. On Senior Day at Franklin Field, the Quakers defeated No. 17 Harvard, 22-13, ending a three-game losing streak.

Penn wrestling won't ease its way into the season - instead, it will jump in against four top-20 teams. The Quakers travel to East Lansing, Mich., this weekend for the Michigan State Open and the start of a promising season. The steep competition - including No.

The men's basketball team tips off its season in upstate N.Y. in 3-game tournament.

Syracuse, N.Y. - Ibrahim Jaaber was back on the court tonight against the Orange, but that didn't seem to matter. Neither did his 18 points, four assists, or four steals. The Quakers lost, 78-60, to a No. 20 Syracuse team playing at the top of its game in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.

After struggling against the zone last year, Penn faces a coach who has made a living with the 2-3

On Nov. 24, 2002, Penn beat Iowa State, 84-77 in the Midwest-dominated Las Vegas Invitational (the other two teams were Illinois and Eastern Illinois). That was the last time the Quakers played three games in three days - winning two - until this weekend, when the Quakers will take on Texas-El-Paso, Saint Francis (N.

While the Penn men's basketball team is one of four Ivies without a black coach, the Red and Blue is still doing its part to support diversity. This weekend, the Quakers will compete in the Black Coaches Invitational, an event sponsored by the Black Coaches Association.

For many students, the decision to pursue higher education is not a particularly difficult one to make. For St. Francis junior Bassith Yessoufou, the decision meant leaving his country, learning a new language and adapting to a culture that is wildly different from his home in the Ivory Coast.

With five games to play in the fall season, Penn's teams have an overall record 43-37-5 and will not bring home any Ivy League titles. Some teams have been disappointing, some have played up to mediocre expectations, and some have demonstrated that there are reasons to have high hopes for the future.

In 2003, a heralded Syracuse freshman led the team in scoring and rebounding and carried the Orange to a national championship. Four years later, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim is hoping to get from Paul Harris a fraction of what he saw from Carmelo Anthony.

High-profile basketball recruiting prospect Josh Owens has chosen to play his college ball at Stanford, rather than at Penn or Vanderbilt, the other two teams on his list. According to a source close to the situation, the Austell, Ga., native is expected to sign a national letter of intent to play for the Cardinal.