Dr. Mary Turner DePalma
One of the “Founding Mothers” of the Women’s Track & Field program, Mary Turner was one of the program’s original recruits. She also happened to be one of the program’s first two NCAA qualifiers on the track, joining Riva Gensib at the 1982 Outdoor Championships where she ran the 800 (Gensib ran the 5,000). A letterwinner in cross country, as well, Turner helped the Quakers win the Big Five championship, take third at the EAIAW Regional meet, and earn a 17th-place finish at the AIAW National Championships her freshman year. On the track, Turner helped Penn finish first among the Ivy League teams at both the Indoor and Outdoor Heptagonal Games her senior year (the Quakers were second to Army overall in both meets). Given her status as an original member of the program, perhaps it’s not surprising that Turner set several records in the middle distances during her time here. What IS impressive is that 30 years after Turner’s graduation you could still find her name on the program’s top-10 lists in the indoor mile (eighth at the time of her induction) and the indoor 800 (ninth). She also was part of record-setting indoor and outdoor 4x800 relay teams in 1984; in both cases, the marks lasted 22 years, and they were still fourth all-time at the time of her induction.
