Fear in D.C. alters Penn's travel plans

The week was supposed to feature two Penn teams traveling to the Washington, D.C., area to face Georgetown. But only one made the trip.

On Tuesday afternoon, the women's golf team decided not to travel to the Georgetown Invitational this weekend because of fear of the Washington area sniper.

Just one day later, however, the field hockey team made the trek to the Hoyas' Kehoe Field, emerging with a 3-2 victory.

"The field hockey game was in a closed area on campus in the district," athletic department spokeswoman Carla Schultzberg said. "There was heightened security and it was a day trip.

"Golf is different because they were going for a two-night stay and the golf course is in Reston, Va. Golf in itself is not very well contained."

The inaugural golf invitational was scheduled to begin today, but on Wednesday, the Georgetown Athletics officially postponed the tournament until March 21st due to undisclosed reasons.

The department refused to comment about any issues pertaining to the sniper.

And while the Penn women's golf team would not be going to the tournament anyway, captain Stacy Kress acknowledges that the Penn Athletic department made a wise choice when it did.

The Invitational would have required the team to stay two nights in the D.C. area, which would almost certainly have required the team to stop for gas.

"I think it was probably a wise decision," senior Stacy Kress said. "The course is located 5-10 minutes from where most of shootings have been occurring. They were just looking out for our safety."

Francis Vaughn, director of both Penn golf teams, concurred with Kress, noting that spending such a significant amount of time in the area was worrisome to the coaches, the athletes and a handful of parents.

However, on Wednesday afternoon, the field hockey team took the team bus to Georgetown's for a four o'clock game.

While some members of the team felt apprehensive a week before the game, team captains Anna Mitchell and Brandi Alexander feel that once the team got on the bus, that there were few concerns.

While on the field the two captains noticed the increased security for the game.

"There was definitely a presence at the game," Mitchell said. "It definitely felt safe down there."

Other athletic programs in the Washington metro area have also been forced to question competition in the past couple of weeks due to the sniper.

The Akron women's soccer team did not travel to Howard University on Oct. 13, and as of yesterday, George Washington was still debating whether they would hold competitions this weekend.

The University of Maryland at College Park did not cancel its Oct. 15 homecoming football game against Georgia Tech, but publicized that it was noticeably increasing police presence at the game, and security in the parking lots.

Even with the recent arrests of suspects John Allen Muhammed and John Lee Malvo, D.C. area universities are still nervous about open air performances of their athletic teams.

While Penn's choices of whether to send its teams to Washington coincided, the athletic department treated the two sports as separate decisions.

Like the rest of the country, Penn has now been forced to adapt to an alarming, but true, fear.

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