Taylor shines for Penn

Heading into the Penn Relays, the 1995 outdoor season had not been one to remember for Penn javelin thrower John Taylor. A lingering groin pull and a sprained ankle had prevented him from competing in many meets and caused him to perform at a limited level in several others. But at Saturday's Relays, Taylor showed he is ready to repeat his past all-American performances heading into the championship meet portion of the season. Taylor unleashed a throw of 236 feet to place second in the Championship of America, duplicating his placing of two years ago. The throw was Taylor's best since transferring from Brown two years ago, and it broke the Penn record he set last year. "It was nice to qualify for NCAAs at home in front of my family," Taylor said. "I wouldn't say that I am 100 percent yet, but I was still able to beat some of the top guys in the country." Taylor's performance was the most impressive one for a Penn team that had a solid, but not spectacular, Penn Relays. "The team's performance works on the law of thirds," assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "One-third of the team did well, one third of the team performed about average, and one-third of the team performed poorly." Perhaps the biggest disappointment came in the 4x100. Penn was hoping to at least advance to the collegiate division of the finals, but its chances ended with a blown handoff between Tyson Murphy and Henry Addo in the qualifying heat. As soon as the baton hit the ground, Penn was disqualified, and the 4x100 team was done for the Carnival. "Dropping the baton was not something that we expected," Nathan Taylor said. "We were definitely capable of making the collegiate championship, and we might have advanced further." The Quakers' other two sprint relay teams fared better. The 4x200 team finished second in the IC4A championship with a time of 1 minute, 25.87 seconds. The 4x400 team of Jim Primerano, Mike Stiffler, Kelsey Armstrong and Chris Harper finished third in the IC4A championship with a time of 3:13.22. The performance was comparable to the team's time in the qualifying round, but Harper and Armstrong ran better races in the final round, while Primerano and Stiffler performed better earlier on. "We should have no problem winning the 4x400 at Heps," Harper said. "I hope that Princeton saw my last race, because that is more indicative of the performance I am capable of." Penn's up-and-down performance was also evident in the field events. The high notes, aside from John Taylor's javelin performance, included Clarence Hinton's seventh-place finish in the Championship of America discus competition with a throw of 170 feet, 9 inches. Stiffler was able to place second in the Eastern Collegiate long jump with a distance of 23-10, while Dave Davenport gained a fourth-place finish in the triple jump with his distance of 48-4.50. The Quakers now move into the championship season determined to take the Heptagonals title away from Princeton.