34th Street Magazine's "Toast" is a semi-weekly newsletter with the latest on Penn's campus culture and arts scene. Delivered Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
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On the heels of one of the best all-around seasons in Penn squash history, the Quakers are doing everything they can to maintain their success from 2015-16.
To completely change the culture of any group, the first step is to start from within.
And for a Penn Athletics brand looking to re-ignite its formerly passionate fan base, the road to recovery is underway.
To make it to the top of any industry, you have to be willing to think outside the box.
Fortunately for Penn Athletics, Jim Steel has taken the message.
Behind the efforts of the 12th-year Strength and Conditioning Manager, Penn varsity teams have strayed from the status quo in the weight room, adopting an unconventional method to raise themselves to the next level: Muay Thai kickboxing.
“I’ve just found that it’s so good for hand-eye coordination, for conditioning it’s unbelievable, and it improves people’s athleticism,” Steel said.
For Penn softball, not much has changed in the last two seasons. They have had a strong offense, made several runs at the Ivy Title and had an ace starter named Alexis.
But this year, the difference is in the last name.
Just a year after graduating perhaps the most illustrious pitcher in program history in Alexis Borden, the Quakers have found a new star in the circle in junior Alexis Sargent.
After waiting in the ranks for two years behind Borden, Sargent emerged as Penn's next top starter early in the season, wasting little time in establishing herself as a bona fide ace.
After a crazy weekend, the track team is reunited. And this time, they mean business.
Last weekend, three groups traveled far and wide in search of elite-level performances that would earn them qualification for the NCAA preliminaries.
In a sport so focused on, quite literally, getting ahead of the competition, Penn women’s rowing coach Wesley Ng has somewhat of an odd philosophy.
“We're making sure we're not looking ahead, ever.”
For Ng's squad, process comes first, and, for the meantime, racing second.
It’s no secret that Penn women’s lacrosse has a roster full of clutch playmakers. But none is more integral to the Quakers’ offense than senior captain Nina Corcoran.
Tupac Shakur once noted, “Things changed, and thats the way it is”
Things may never be the same for Penn heavyweight rowing, as the program has undergone a near-complete overhaul of the coaching staff.
Well, hopefully they got that out of their system.
In their last action before kicking off Ivy League play on Friday against Yale, Penn softball fell in both games of a doubleheader versus Lehigh at Penn Park on Wednesday afternoon.
What’s a team to do when it’s already reached the pinnacle of a conference?
Reload, of course.
Penn men’s golf will rely heavily on new faces if it is to contend once again in 2016.
There’s no other way of putting it — it’s the end of an era.
Penn men's swimming legend Chris Swanson has one meet left to bear the colors Red and Blue.
If all goes as planned for senior men’s track and field stars Thomas Awad and Sam Mattis, this June’s NCAA National Championships won’t mark the end of their respective 2016 seasons.