When I was looking at colleges, a big factor in my 17-year-old head was sports. I saw one school's chancellor talk about how excited he is that his school no longer focuses on athletics. On a tour at another, I scoffed when the guide explained how while the school's teams are horrible, some students still cheer for them.
As a freshman living in Hill, I remember waking up at about 8 a.m. one Friday morning in April to a sound that I cannot really describe. It was noise, and a lot of it. I looked out my window onto Walnut Street, and it was like I was in another country (probably Jamaica), with food carts, souvenir stands, people dressed up in all sorts of outfits and track uniforms and a general atmosphere that was a bit alien to Penn.
A year ago, this team may not have won these two games. But this season's baseball team is different. Andy Console came on for a tiring Jim Birmingham and struck out Adrian Turnham to snuff out a Princeton comeback, and Penn moved ever closer to its first Lou Gehrig Division title since 1997, sweeping the Tigers 11-1 and 6-4 Saturday afternoon.
A day after an extra-inning thriller, Penn made things a little easier yesterday in Lawrenceville, N.J. The Quakers scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back, thrashing Rider 13-5. Junior Kyle Armeny led the offensive charge for Penn (17-14), with his team-leading seventh home run, a solo shot in the third, as well as an RBI groundout in the first.
Almost exactly a year ago, Glen Miller was just a name mentioned as a possible candidate for the Penn hoops coaching job, left vacant after longtime head man Fran Dunphy left for Temple a week earlier. He was the coach at Brown, and even said on April 15 that he was not interested in the Quakers job.
For a program desperate for respect, Tommy Amaker is a match in more ways than one. Amaker, who has spent the last 13 years coaching big-time basketball at Michigan and Seton Hall, has accepted an offer to become the new head man at Harvard.
This was no ordinary women's tennis match. About 100 cheering fans were holding or wearing free T-shirts and eating pizza as Penn battled Princeton Saturday afternoon at Lott Courts. Michael Dowd's team went out of its way to set up and market this event, publicizing it on Locust Walk, and spending mostly its own money to make it happen.
One hundred sixteen games, 79 wins and three Ivy League titles - that's a pretty impressive accomplishment for the senior class of Stephen Danley, Adam Franklin, Ibrahim Jaaber and Mark Zoller. But how do they stack up with the greats from Penn - and the rest of the League - who have graced Ivy gymnasiums over the past four years?
If you haven't had it happen to you yet, it's probably because you just haven't been around here long enough. It's a question I dread, even home in Penn-centric Long Island. "Where do you go to school?" Often, it takes a long time to explain what exactly the University of Pennsylvania is, and where it is located, and most importantly, that it is not the same place as the very large school in State College, Pa.
LEXINGTON, Ky., March 17 - On Thursday, Acie Law and Texas A&M; had to reach back for a little extra to hold off an upset bid from 14th-seeded Penn in the first round. Saturday, it was even tougher for the third-seeded Aggies, playing what essentially was a road game in Rupp Arena against sixth-seeded Louisville.
Solutions by The State News
