W. track claims sixth at Heps

It was the kind of repeat that the Penn women's track team didn't want to see.

Standing in fourth place after day one of the Outdoor Heptagonal Championships, held two weekends ago at Princeton, the Quakers looked to be in good position to finish among the leaders in the annual two-day meet.

Instead, the Red and Blue floundered, dropping two places over the course of the second day and finishing in sixth place for the second year in a row.

Brown took home the Heps title with a 132-point performance. Penn and Columbia both scored 40 points to tie for sixth.

Although an improvement from Penn's eighth-place finish in late February's Indoor Heps, the Quakers were not pleased with their outdoor performance.

"It's much better than how we did indoors, but outdoors we were still disappointed," Penn long jumper Bassey Adjah said. "We felt we should have scored more points -- people did step up, but we just didn't get [points] from everybody."

Some of the Quakers' usual contributors did do their part in trying to help Penn climb higher than last year's sixth-place Heps finish.

Sophomore Julie Siebert-Johnson, last year's Heps winner in the javelin, took second place in the event on Saturday.

On Sunday, both senior JaJuan Gair and sophomore Crystal Marsh placed second in the finals of their respective hurdles events.

With a time of 14.15 in the 100-meter hurdles, Gair finished behind only Harvard's Brenda Taylor.

Taylor -- voted Athlete of the Meet -- hit the tape more than a half-second ahead of the Quakers senior with a time of 13.62. This finals run was a cruise, though, for the Crimson senior -- her 13.56 in the preliminaries set a new Heps record.

Marsh's 1:02.64 finish in the 400 hurdles gave the Red and Blue an additional eight team points on day two.

While no Quakers finished in third place in their events, a number did manage fourth-place performances.

Penn freshman Caroline Rebello's 11'5.7'" in the pole vault was good for fourth place and the four team points it brings.

Adjah, a senior, took fourth in a competitive long jump field. Her 19'2" leap was less than seven inches off of first place.

"I'd rather have lost by a lot than lose by a little for first place," Adjah said. "It just wasn't my day."

Meanwhile, Jennifer Thompson's fourth-place leap in the triple jump -- covering a distance of 39' 0.25" -- did make the Penn senior's day.

"It's definitely what I'd hoped to do -- I wanted to score points for the team," she said. "It wasn't my best jump, but I was happy."

Absent from the list of point contributors was Quakers thrower Yinka Orafidiya. The junior's seventh-place, 42'10.75" finish in the shot put didn't add to the team's total -- only the top six in each event earned points for their squad.

But Orafidiya and many of her Penn teammates will get one last chance to improve upon their Heps performances this weekend at the ECAC Championships, hosted by Princeton.

Unfortunately, one Penn athlete who will not get to compete in her final scheduled meet is Thompson. The ECAC triple jump competition will take place on Sunday -- the same day as her graduation from the College.

"I'm kind of upset about that," she said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.