Women's Cross-country places eighth at Heps

All season long, the Penn women's cross country team looked forward to improving on its eighth-place result at last year's Heptagonal Championships.

This weekend at Van Cortlandt Park in New York, the Quakers had a chance to prove their mettle at the 2002 cross country Heps, and the result was rather anti-climatic, as the Red and Blue once again came in eighth place out of the nine-team field.

Quakers' junior Abbi Gleeson paced the team, garnering second-team All-Ivy honors for the second-consecutive year by finishing 11th overall with a time of 18:02.

Junior Lainie Lord, 27th overall, was the second highest finisher on Penn's squad, while Kristen Koch (48th), Christine Myers (58th) and Claire Duncan (61st), rounded out the top five for the Quakers.

"We raced pretty well," Gleeson said. "There were a few disappointments, but overall we had a good time and enjoyed ourselves out there."

While the team may not have improved on its overall result from last year, solace is to be found in the fact that the veteran runners on the squad -- most notably Gleeson, Lord and Koch -- achieved personal bests at what is considered to be the most important meet of the season, and, which as Koch said, features "a really tough field."

"My goal was top ten, so I'm a little disappointed," said Gleeson, who placed 14th in last year's race, of her 11th place finish. "But it still was an improvement."

Koch, a senior who produced her best ever time at Van Cortlandt Park, said that by and large, the team was satisfied with the result.

"I think it went as expected. We were hoping to move up, and you always want to improve, but a few unfortunate things happened during the race."

There has been nothing unfortunate, however, about the Quakers season, which has seen a program on the rise with improved results across the board.

"We've had an awesome season," Gleeson said. "We have so much fun together and it's just been a good year."

Penn has been in a rebuilding mode for some time now and first-year coach Gwen Harris has helped to spark a program that had previously been floundering.

Gleeson, who is in her last season of action with the Red and Blue due to an early graduation, feels that the women's cross country team is finally headed in the right direction.

"I think the program is starting to get a lot better, which is a little disappointing because I'm leaving, but it's really exciting too."

The Quakers will have a chance to officially end their impressive 2002 campaign on a positive note when they head into the upcoming NCAA District Championships, where Gleeson and Lord in particular have outside shots at qualifying for this year's nationals.

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