M. X-C claims decided victory at Ram Invite

The Penn men's cross country team stormed into its first meet of the season and ran away with a decided victory.

But the Quakers are not satisfied.

This weekend's win at the Ram Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in New York city is not something that the squad is bragging about, even though it seems that they have plenty to be pleased with.

Penn sophomore Dusty Lieb won the race in a time of 26:32, a full nine seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Lee Yaracs of Columbia.

Lieb -- a native of Arnold, Maryland -- made history over the summer break as the youngest overall champion of the 27th annual Annapolis Ten Mile Run, finishing the race in 54:51.55.

Lieb was not the only runner in Red and Blue to place in the top-10.

Sophomore Steve Hayes finished fourth behind Lieb, and two Columbia runners. George Weiner and Nolan Tully finished on the heels of Hayes, crossing the finish line in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Eric Malmstrom crossed the line in tenth place with a time of 27:10.

As a squad, the Red and Blue claimed the win, edging out Columbia, Bates and host-Fordham.

"The meet was OK," Penn coach Charlie Powell said, "We don't put a whole lot into the first meet."

Powell explained that the first meet is more of a tool for the runners. Having not competed in a collegiate cross country meet in nearly a year, the Quakers took the opportunity to work through the kinks acquired in the off-season.

"We asked them to go be totally under control, and they did that," Powell said. "They did that very well."

Because the cross country season is a gradual progression towards the season's finale meets -- the Heptagonal Championships in particular -- each weekend meet serves to train.

For that reason, Powell and his squad focus on the actual races and not the result.

"There were some specific things that we wanted to do, tactical things," he said. "They were just a couple of little things that we need to work on."

Powell was not ecstatic about the win -- both on the individual and group level -- because it is so early in the season and because he believes the team still has much to work on before they peak.

"I'm pleased with the way the team did, with the way they carried themselves," Powell said. "But there are other things that they need to do."

In the coming weeks, the Quakers will be building on last weekend's race.

At this point it is still early in the season, and the Red and Blue are still training at a high level.

"We're just maintaining a high mileage rate," Powell said. "We're working pretty darn hard so that later in the season we can taper off and be very sharp.

"That's what we have to focus on."

The Quakers' next meet is on Sept. 28 at the Paul Short Memorial run, hosted by Lehigh.

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