Four track athletes made the trip on Thursday to Philadelphia to run at the prestigious Penn Relays with mixed success. Two members of the men's team and two from the women's team went traveled to the 112th Relays in order to qualify for Nationals, and while three of them had success hitting their times, they were not as fast as they would have liked.
Sophomore Catherine Beck blazed to a fourth-place finish in the Olympic Development 5,000 meters at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on Thursday with a time of 16:51.04, breaking Nancy Benson's 18-year-old record of 16:54.4 and automatically qualifying for Nationals.
"Just to [improve my personal best] by that much and run that fast is just huge for me," Beck said. "I'm still trying to process it all."
Beck had planned to focus her talents on the 1,500 for Nationals this season, but now has the opportunity to compete in two events. The 5,000 meters is the last event of the meet, which takes place on May 25-27 at Benedictine College, making it easier for Beck to run both events.
"Right now my plan is to run both," Beck said. "I've just been putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform well at Nationals in the 5,000. I want to ease the tension and diffuse it by running a race earlier."
Senior tri-captain Becca Ades also ran the event with Beck, taking 19th and running 17:49.74. The time just missed the National provisional qualifying mark of 17:46, but still qualifies Ades for All New England's.
The race, which went through the first lap in 1:27 and the second in 1:20, was unevenly paced at the beginning and Ades had trouble hanging with the leaders.
"I went out with the pack and lost them and then tried to get up with them," Ades said. "It was a good effort but I would have liked to qualify. I wish I had run faster, but it's not going to get me down."
The members of the men's team both posted fast times, but not as fast as they initially hoped. Senior tri-captain Matt Lacey took 32nd in the College Men 10,000 Championship, running 31:06.04. Although the time qualifies Lacey provisionally for Nationals, it will not be competitive enough to get him on the final list.
"I didn't run that well in the Penn Relays," said Lacey. "I didn't start that well and since it's such a long race, if you don't start well it's hard to run the rest of the race faster."
Kantos ran 14:43.84 for 18th place in the Olympic Development 5,000 at the Relays. While the time is a personal best, and good enough to provisionally qualify Kantos for Nationals, it was not as fast as expected will likely not be enough to get him to Nationals. Last year, the final qualifier for Nationals ran 14:39.1.
"You can't be disappointed with a [personal best]," junior Josh Kennedy said. "He ran a good race and he knows that he has the capability to run faster. It's just a matter of whether he's going to get that chance before Nationals."
Kennedy was supposed to join Kantos in the 5,000, but illness on Thursday prevented him from running.
Kantos and Lacey traveled to the Relays to find a fast race in order to hit qualifying times for Nationals. Without competitive times from the Relays, both runners may be scrambling to find the opportunity for a fast race before Nationals. Last season, Lacey used Penn Relays to automatically qualify for Nationals in the 5,000. Teammate Nate Brigham (LA '05) also qualified for Nationals automatically in the Penn Relays last year in the 10,000.
