Women's track has good experience at Penn Relays, looks forward to Heps

To run your best, you have to run against the best.

Or so the general theory goes, at least. To non-runners, such a saying might seem a bit unusual, akin to saying "In order to run quickly, there must be other people around me, distracting me and getting in my way," but to a track athlete it makes sense.

For whatever reason, the presence of other runners provides an impetus for increased effort. And the better the competition, the higher the level of effort required.

The women's outdoor track team performed over the weekend at one of the biggest meets of the season. The Penn Relays, held at the University of Pennsylvania, provide a field of both enormous size and talent on which the Tiger athletes tested their skills. With the diverse competition including skill levels from high school wunderkind all the way to Olympic trainee, the atmosphere was intense, and the opportunities to pull off a great race were many.

Those opportunities were lessened considerably, however, when the weekend kicked off with a dreary Thursday afternoon, which made it difficult for those scheduled to compete.

"The rain made every event tough," sophomore pole-vaulter Chelo Canino said. "The rest of the weekend was beautiful, though, and the squad really picked it up on Friday and Saturday with some good performances."

Canino placed fourth overall in the pole vault, clearing 4.69m.

Also, the distance medley relay team finished in 11th, crossing the finish line in 12 minutes, 14 seconds, while the 4x800m relay team finished in 15th place with a time of 9:06.59, marking a solid showing for the Tiger relay squad.

Senior captain Catherine Casey had a strong performance as well with an 11th-place finish in the 5,000m with a time of 16:52.81.

Other athletes to compete included sophomore Jen Byrd, who finished 50th in the 400m hurdles with a time of 64.97s, and sophomore Hasina Outtz took 21st place in the same event with a time of 62.31s. Outtz also ran in the sprint medley relay with senior captain Lauren Simmons, sophomore Susan Coltman, and freshman Leslie Warren. The trio set a new school record with a time of 3:59.55.

"I felt I had a solid race in the hurdles at Penn, given the rain and cold," Outtz said. "The team is looking good right now, and I think that if everyone stays healthy we can do very well at Heps. Injuries and sickness can be a problem, but I think that our team definitely has the cohesiveness and the talent to make things happen."

"We're ready for Heps," Canino agreed. "I'm ready for Heps. I think we can definitely do better than last year at outdoor Heps, and maybe even better our third-place at indoor Heps."

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Traditionally not a track powerhouse, the Tiger program has taken a drastic turn for the better recently. Where last year the team finished seventh at outdoor Heps, this year it finished third. The team hopes a similar turnaround will occur for the current indoor season.

"We have some amazing athletes in the throws that will be able to be in their best events during Heps," Outtz said. "And there are also some races outdoors that aren't competed in indoors that we should score in. I think we're a very balanced team and I'm very excited to see a great overall performance [at Heps]."

Such expectations shouldn't be too far off if the Tiger's continue their winning ways.