Heptagonal time has arrived

M. Track must overcome injuries Since the beginning of the season, the focal point of the Penn men's indoor track team has been this weekend. The Quakers' goal throughout has been to win the Heptagonals meet and thereby win the conference championship. Now they get their chance. Penn will make the trip to Harvard to compete at Heps tomorrow and Sunday. Last year, Penn won the Ivy title, but finished third overall behind Navy and Army. Can this year's edition of Quakers improve on that finish and win the whole thing? That depends on whom you ask. Opinions on the team's chances range from confidence to reserved optimism, to doubt. Sophomore sprinter Clive Brown opted for confidence. "Everyone's pretty optimistic," Brown said. "We hope to do really well. We had a really good meet at Cornell two weeks ago. Hopefully that'll carry over." The meet at Cornell was Penn's last. The time in between meets should aid the Quakers greatly, according to Brown. "The two weeks rest helps out a lot," he said. "The week before we do a lot of hard training. This week we tapered off so we'll be fresh." "We definitely have a chance to win," continued Brown, who added that if the team performs well in the 35-pound weight, 55 meters, 400 meters and hurdles, "We'll be right in the thick of things. We should be one of the favorites." A little less assured of Penn's chances is junior co-captain Kelsey Armstrong. "We're fairly confident that we'll do pretty well," Armstrong said. "We're one of the favorites going in. I guess we have a chance to win if we get lucky in some events and things go our way." Quaker assistant coach Nathan Taylor has an even less hopeful view. On paper, Taylor said, the favorite heading into the meet is Army, with Princeton and Navy right behind and Penn a notch below. "I think if any one of those teams falters it would be possible for us to finish ahead of them," Taylor said. "But Army and Princeton are, indoors, two of the toughest teams in the country." With a little luck, the Quakers could have been as good, Taylor added. He pointed out that junior co-captains Terry McLean and Mamadou Johnson are both out, along with senior Jason Ramos and sophomore Tove Christensen. "Our best athletes in six events are out," Taylor said. "It's hard to replace that in 18 events. With those guys there we could have been a definite threat to win." But as things stand now, both Army and Princeton are simply better indoor teams than Penn, according to Taylor. And there is little the Quakers can do about it. "Track is just a different event. As they say in track and field, a 9.9 beats a 10 flat. That means the faster guy beats the slower guy?. "There isn't anything you can do about it in track. Sure we'd love to win. But I think the only way we'll win is for the other teams to falter. And I'm going to church to pray that happens." Taylor can pray all he wants, but it seems no one knows just how well Penn can do this weekend. But you can be sure of one thing. "Everyone on the Penn team will be focused on having their best performance of the year," Taylor said. "And from that, we'll just let the chips fall where they may."