Penn's women, Harvard's men post squash wins

Penn's women's squash team (2-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) defeated both Yale (0-1, 0-1) and Brown (0-3, 0-3) this weekend, securing an undefeated start to its season. Saturday's match against Yale proved to be difficult, as the Quakers barely topped the Bulldogs, 5-4. Penn's success in this matchup was mainly a function of the lower ranked players' performances. Penn's Kristen Lange and Sydney Scott, playing at the No.1 and No. 2 spots respectively, both lost their matches, 3-1, to Yale's Catherine McLeod and Miranda Ranieri. But Penn's Paula Pearson, Radhika Ahluwalia and Caitlin Russell, the bottom three slots, all turned in 3-0 wins over their Bulldog opponents, securing the win for the Quakers.

The Quakers easily defeated the Bears on Sunday, as each of Penn's players turned in a 3-0 win against her Brown opponents. Scott, Tara Chawla and Caitlin Russell took two out of three of their matches 9-0. Notably, Russell completely shut out her opponent, Katie Seno, taking all three matches, 9-0.The Quakers will next compete at the William White Invitational on Jan. 5-7 in Philadelphia.

Big Start for Big Red track

The Big Red hosted the Cornell Relays Dec. 2, starting its season off with a bang. Competing against other large universities, the Cornell men and women made their presence known in the arena from start to finish. In total, the men and women each won nine events and reported some impressive finishes.

The Big Red women started off the meet with first, third and fourth place finishes in the 60-meter dash by Janice Nsor, Krystal Williams and Troy Mullins, respectively. The women followed up with a sweep of the 500m dash, taking first, second and third by Christina Cossell, Tameka Royal and Jessica Weyman.

The Big Red struggled in the distance events, however, failing to put anyone in the top finishes. Fortunately, Cornell made up for lost momentum in the 3000 and 5000m runs with a win in the 60m hurdles by Stephanie King and first place finishes in the 4x400 and 4x800m relays. The Big Red fell to Colgate in the distance medley.

The high point of the meet came when Sarah Wilfred secured both the win in the high jump and equaled her school record. Cornell finished up the meet with wins in the long jump by Jeomi Maduka and triple jump by Karen Snyder. On the field, Andrea Kavleski, Stephania Smolenski and Maria Matos secured first, second, and fourth place finishes in the weight throw.

The Cornell men also started their season off with a solid showing. Nate Crabtree and Doug Cloninger finished first and second in the 200m dash. The Big Red followed this up with first, third and sixth place finishes in the 500m dash by Kolby Hoover, Pat Robak and Kojo Degraft-Hanson.

In the heptathlon, Cornell's TJ Toro won the 1000m run, the high jump and the pole vault. Toro placed second in 60m hurdles and the shot put heptathlon. The Big Red then secured wins in the 4x400m relay and the distance medley. Cornell finished up the invitational with one-two finishes in the long jump by Muhammad Halim and Duane Teixeira and in the triple jump by Halim and Aaron Gadson. On the field, Brian Cortina finished first in the shot put. The Big Red men and women will next compete at the Southern Tier Collegiate Open.

Harvard squash

The Harvard men's squash team (4-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) turned in two 9-0 crushing defeats against Ancient Eight foes, Dartmouth (6-1, 0-1) and Cornell (5-1, 0-4). Ilan Oren, Garnett Booth, Mihir Sheth and Niko Hardy all turned in at least one 9-0 win over their Big Green opponents. Booth, notably, swept Dartmouth's Tyler Young, securing the 3-0 win and taking the match, 9-0, 9-0, 9-0. The Crimson faced Cornell on Dec. 2 and turned in another dominating performance. Harvard took the match 9-0, with each player taking his match 3-0, and six Crimson players — Ilan Oren, Colin West, Jason DeLierre, Garnett Booth, Niko Hardy and Todd Ostrow — took at least one of their sets, 9-0. The Crimson men will next compete at the USSRA Five-Man team Championships held in Hartford, Conn. Dec. 9 and 10.