Slippery snow sends M. X-C to ninth place

Nature can sometimes be one tough Mother. The Penn men's cross country team can attest to that. In its final race of the season at the NCAA 10K district championships last Saturday, the Quakers struggled with slippery conditions, 3 inches of snow and frigid temperatures. Fighting these wintery elements in State College, Pa., naturally took a toll on the runners. The dismal weather suitably reflected the Quakers' discontent with their performance, finishing between Mount St. Mary's and Lafayette in ninth-place overall. "Being ninth is not close enough to say we almost won and not bad enough to say that we're a bad team," said Penn senior captain Paolo Frescura, who finished first among the Quakers and 20th overall with a time of 33 minutes, 43.6 seconds. "We were just in there and now have to go back and continue doing our work." Princeton and Navy finished first and second respectively, thus earning bids to the NCAA championships. The top three individual finishers were also selected to compete at next week's championships in South Carolina. Georgetown University's Justin McCarthy took first among a pool of 183 runners with the winning time of 32:32.8. Penn State's Austin Drager and Steve Bohan of West Virginia join McCarthy in South Carolina, also securing a bid with second and third individual places. It was an unpredictable day for the runners. There was plenty of commotion at the start of the race, as each runner attempted to remain standing despite the slippery track conditions. The meet highlighted several tumbles and falls, including one by Penn sophomore Joe Campagna within the first mile. "The weather played a lot of games," said Penn sophomore Scott Clayton, who finished second among the Quakers and 46th overall with a time of 34:19.62. "For the most part, the quality runners still stayed toward the front. Some little things changed, but the big picture stayed the same. It didn't affect Princeton and Navy that badly." Two constants for the afternoon, however, were in the performances of the Princeton and Navy runners. Both teams have proven throughout this season to be consistently strong and once again proved their strength and consistency last Saturday. While most Quakers begin to make the transition to the winter track season, three Quakers -- Clayton, Campagna and freshman Bryan Kovalsky -- aspire to join the Junior National Team in Portland, Ore., on December 7. The top 10 in this 19-and-under squad would compete at the Junior World Championships later this year. "We would rather finish on a higher note," Clayton said. "We feel that we have our best races left in us." As the track season begins and another cross country season comes to a close, the future looks bright for this young but veteran squad. "The sophomores and juniors are going to make a great team next year," Frescura said. "With added training and more strength, they're going to be an impressive core of guys."

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