Heps result leaves M. Track optimistic for outdoor season

The Heptagonal Championships held at Cornell Saturday and Sunday were not supposed to be close. Defending champion Princeton was expected to run away from the field by as many as 40 points. But Penn sent a scare into the Tigers and the rest of the league by finishing second by only 11 points, 117-106. This year's meet was in sharp contrast to last year's, when Princeton defeated Penn by a score of 124.5-65. The Tigers went on to end the Quakers' two year run as outdoor Heps champions last spring, winning by three and a half points. If the indoor results serve as any indication of the outdoor season, then the Tigers' championship tenure could be a very short one. "We hope to use the meet as a stepping stone," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "We are that much closer to winning the whole thing outdoors." Penn did not get off to a great start at the meet and midway through found itself down by 43 points. But the Quakers did not panic, realizing that their stronger events were yet to come. The turnaround started with the triple jump, where Penn took second, third, and fifth. Among Penn's jumpers, sophomore Okinyi Ayungo jumped 47 feet, 7.75 inches, followed by freshman Dave Davenport at 47-7 and sophomore Randy Simmons at 47-2.5 inches. The Quakers then turned to what have been their two strongest events this season, the 55-meter dash and the 400-meter sprint. In the 55, sophomore Greg Davis finished first with a time of 6.44 seconds. Freshman Tyson Murphy was second in 6.46 seconds, and junior Henry Addo added a fifth-place finish of 6.53 seconds. In the 400, junior captain Chris Harper successfully defended his Heps indoor title, winning in a time of 48.72 seconds. Teammate Clive Brown was fourth with a time of 49.68 seconds. Harper, Brown and Davis teamed up with senior captain Kelsey Armstrong to win the 4x400-meter relay in a time of 3 minutes, 18.40 seconds. The Quakers relied on a total team effort to challenge Princeton. Almost all of the members met Powell's high expectations. Twenty-six of the 36 team members who competed had some role in scoring points for Penn. "We actualized on our expectations," Harper said. "We were able to qualify a lot of people for the finals, and they scored for us." The sprint and jump events produced most of the points for the Quakers, just as they had throughout the season. In the high jump, junior Dave Rechtweg won with a height of 6-9. Fellow junior Aric Shalev finished in fifth with a jump of 6-7. Junior Greg Schroeder finished fifth in the pole vault, clearing a height of 15-5. One surprise for the Quakers was freshman Eric Hyde's third-place finish in the pentathlon with a score of 3,568 points. The Quakers received a second place finish in the 35-pound weight throw from Clarence Hinton. The senior provisional NCAA qualifier set a personal best with his throw of 61-1.25. The distance events, however, proved a disappointment. Sophomore Neil Riordan finished sixth in the 800-meters when he tired at the end after leading most of the way. Penn was only able to finish in fifth place in both the 4X800 meter relay and the distance medley relay. The Quakers were not overly concerned with the results in the relays because they are not run during the outdoor season. After the meet, many coaches were ready to concede the outdoor championship to Penn. Several events in which Penn is weak, such as the 500- and the 1,000-meters, are not run during outdoors. The Quakers' hopes for outdoor success look even more promising because of the events that are added. Harper has never lost in the 200-meters, and Penn can call upon any number of its talented sprinters in the 100-meters. In the javelin, Penn has one of the top collegiate throwers in the country in all-American John Taylor. The 11 points by which the Quakers lost indoors can quickly be erased outdoors. "We're on our way to winning outdoors," Powell said. "This was just a temporary stopover."