M. Track optimistic for upcoming outdoor season

The Penn men's indoor track team finished its successful season March 4-5 at the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association of America championships. Penn finished 32nd overall in a field of over 90 teams. The Quakers did not go after the IC4A championship, but instead concentrated on gaining meet experience. The meet was one week after Penn's second place finish at Heps, and the coaches decided the team would not yet be sufficiently recovered from that emotional meet to challenge for the title. Penn's top finisher was senior thrower Clarence Hinton, who placed sixth overall in the 35-pound weight throw. Hinton set a school record with his throw of 63 feet, 2 inches but was only able to place sixth because the meet featured many of the country's top throwers. The Quakers had only two other athletes score for them at the meet. Junior high jumper Aric Shalev, who finished fourth at Heps, placed eighth with his jump of 6-8. Freshman Eric Hyde was eighth in the pentathlon even though his score was several hundred points lower than his third-place performance at Heps. Penn lost another chance at scoring when its 4x400-meter relay team was disqualified for running outside of its lane after running a time that would have placed it fifth overall. Junior captain Chris Harper, a member of the relay team, also ran into bad luck in the 200 meters and was disqualified for leaving his lane. Despite the team's performance at IC4As, Penn coach Charlie Powell was very pleased with the results of the Quakers' season. "The thing that is really encouraging," Powell said, "is that we finished second at Heps and 14th in the national power rankings while focusing more on the outdoor season." Penn's indoor season has definitely raised expectations for the upcoming outdoor season. In finishing second to Princeton by only 11 points at Heps, the team became fired up for the outdoors. Indoor Heps served as a reminder of last year's outdoor Heps when Princeton edged out Penn by three points. The Quakers are determined to regain the Heps title outdoors, and it appears they have the necessary talent. "The team is a little bit stronger than even we thought," Powell said. Penn is looking forward to the outdoor season because there are more events in its strongest area, the sprints. The Quakers are also anticipating the return of all-American javelin thrower John Taylor, whose event does not take place indoors. Penn is expected to dominate Heps outdoors. The outdoor season begins March 25 at the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C.