Captainless M. X-C finishes eighth preparing for IC4As

The Paul Short Invitational 8K at Lehigh surely has its name for a reason. For the second consecutive season, the Penn men's cross country team was short of their captain at the starting line last Saturday in Bethlehem, Pa. Perhaps it is the Lehigh jinx. Despite the absence of Penn men's captain Paolo Frescura, the Quakers finished just behind Army to capture eighth place among a pool of 31 teams. Sophomore Joe Campagna led the Quakers with a time of 25 minutes, 8.1 seconds to finish 28th overall. Nationally ranked Michigan State and North Carolina State placed first and second, respectively, but the Quakers had their sights set on the two teams directly preceding them, namely Brown, Army, Mt. St. Mary's and Penn State. Senior Kyle Baker of Michigan State ran a spectacular race, taking first place out of 211 runners with a time of 24:19.1. "Unfortunately, we were right about where we should have been [according to the national rankings]," said Penn coach Charlie Powell. "With the personnel we had, we did very well." A series of unexpected mishaps occurred prior to the race on Saturday. Senior captain Frescura is nursing a hip injury and will likely sit out this Saturday when the team travels to Lafayette. The injury isn't serious, so Frescura has been running during practice and should be primed for the championships. In addition, sophomore Scott Clayton suffered from an illness the night before the meet and had a subpar performance. With these absences, it proved difficult for the Quakers to gauge their capabilities against opponents and conference rivals. On the wake of the district championship IC4As and the Heptagonal Championships, the Quakers are beginning to realize how tight the opposition truly is. According to Powell, last Saturday's meet proved to be "stunning, but also encouraging." "As a team, we can all run quality times, but we weren't able to do it this weekend," Clayton said. "Joe's (Campagna) performance, though, gives us a lot of confidence, knowing that we have done the same training that he has." This week, practice will consist of the same physically demanding mileage, but the team's mental focus and intensity will be challenged. Some members will use this weekend to mentally recuperate in order to prepare for the upcoming championships, while others will gain racing experience at the Leopard Invitational, held at Lafayette. "If we are not mentally ready to go after it, we will not catch those teams like Brown and Navy, who are ranked one and two (for the Heps)," Powell said. It will be a test of Penn's maturity when it confronts these teams with its entire arsenal of runners, assuming everyone stays healthy. If everyone remains injury-free and if the Quakers can retain confidence and composure in the final stretch, their goals should be well within reach. "The goals are easy to figure out," Powell said. "It's the Heps and Districts and you go from there. One (the former) is bragging rights to your conference. The other is whether or not you go to the big dance (NCAA championships)."

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