M. Track blows by Army

Talking to members of the Penn men's track team after last week's meet at Cornell would lead one to believe the Quakers were upset by the Big Red. But, in fact, Penn did emerge victorious from its trip to Ithaca, N.Y. It wasn't the result that bothered the Quakers, but the margin of victory that was troublesome. Penn, which has had something of an Ivy League mini-dynasty, winning the Ancient Eight title three of the last four years, was expected to blow away Cornell. But the Quakers escaped with just a two-point win. Coming off the narrow victory, Penn made great strides in nearly sweeping the race events at the West Point Invitational Saturday. Athletes from 28 different schools participated in the meet. "From the distance runners to the sprinters, everyone did well," freshman Robin Martin said. "Last week was definitely a low point, but I think we were a lot more focused this week." Martin won the 800-meter competition with a time of one minute, 55.8 seconds, just .5 seconds off his personal best. Martin's sentiments echoed those of most of the team. Although team standings were not kept for this meet, it was apparent that the Quakers' performances were much stronger than they had been just a week earlier. In addition to the 800-meter run, Penn sprinters placed first in the 55-meter and 200-meter dashes -- both won by senior Henry Addo. Senior Clive Brown finished first in the 400-meter dash, and senior Chris Harper won the 500-meter race. Junior Neil Riordan came in first in the 1,000-meter run, and junior Matt Wilkinson won the 3,000-meter competition. The top individual performer at the meet was Addo, who won the 55-meter with a time of 6.54 seconds and the 200-meter in 22.40 seconds. Despite all of the outstanding individual performances, the biggest story for the Quakers was their performance in the 4x400-meter relay. The relay team of sophomore Mike Stiffler, Brown, Martin and Harper finished the race in 3:18.9, more than three seconds ahead of the rest of the competition. "Harper returned, and our relay was back to where it should be," Martin said. "I think this was our biggest meet yet this year." On the field side, Penn's key performance came from junior shot putter Chris Osentowski. Although Osentowski won the shot put competition with a toss of 52 feet, 2 inches, he claimed the opposition was weaker than he had expected. "Right now, I'm just building consistency," Osentowski said. "This gives me solid throws in three consecutive meets. I'll be ready when we start facing a tougher caliber of competition."