Quakers want to do more than host Relays

With all the excitement about the top Olympic and college athletes at the Penn Relays, it is often forgotten that the host school also competes. In fact, the Penn men's track team has had its share of excellent performances at Relays. Two years ago, Penn had one of its best Relays in recent years. Six Quakers placed in the top five in field events, while three relay teams also placed well. Yet little or no mention was made of Penn's accomplishments. This year the Quakers might have a performance at the Relays that cannot be ignored. Penn is one of the strongest Heptagonal teams and features several individuals looking to medal at the Carnival. The Quakers' best chance to win medals is in the field events. There are two divisions in the field events, the Championship of America and the collegiate division. The championship division features the top 10 athletes in each event, while the collegiate division is made up of the next 30 competitors. Senior throwers Clarence Hinton and John Taylor are both in the championship division of their events. Hinton, who won the collegiate division in the discus two years ago, is the eighth seed in the event this year. Taylor is the sixth seed despite being hampered by an assortment of injuries this year. It will be no easy task to medal -- the two throwers will be going up against some of the finest competition in the country. "There are outstanding fields in all of the throwing events," Penn assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "In fact, there are two NCAA champions in the discus -- Brian Milen from Penn State, who won two years ago, and John Godina from UCLA, who won last year." Penn will be entering athletes in the college divisions of all the other field events, including Mike Stiffler in the long jump, Dave Davenport in the triple jump, Greg Schroeder in the pole vault and Dave Rechtweg and Aric Shalev in the high jump. The relay races, though, are the featured races of the Carnival. There are three divisions of relay finals. The championship takes the top eight teams from the qualifying rounds, the collegiate takes the next eight, and the Inter-Collegiate Amateur Athletic Association final includes the top eight IC4A teams who did not reach the other two finals. Last year Penn reached the college finals in the 4x200 meters and the IC4A championship in the 4x400 meters. Penn should continue that success this weekend. There will be three relays in which the Quakers could advance to the finals. The 4x100 consists of Tyson Murphy, Henry Addo, Greg Davis and Chris Harper. In the 4x200, the Quakers will run Davis, Addo, Kelsey Armstrong and Harper. Finally, in the 4x400, the Quakers will feature Jim Primerano, Stiffler, Armstrong and Harper. "If we run well, we might make the Championship of America in the 4x200 and the collegiate championship in the 4x100," Taylor said. "It would be excellent if we could make the collegiate 4x100, because there will be seven of the top 10 4x100 teams in the country at the meet." While Penn is concentrating on doing well at these 1995 Relays, it has a more far-reaching goal in the back of its mind. The Quakers are hoping one day teams will look at the Relays not just as an opportunity to run against the top teams in the country at Penn, but also as a chance to run against the Quakers themselves. "One of our long-term goals is to develop a program that will bring recognition to the host university," Taylor said. Penn will move a little closer to this goal if it can repeat its past performances this year. And possibly even improve on them.