Sprinters cannot lift M. Track past Tigers

The Quakers had to settle for 2nd place atThe Quakers had to settle for 2nd place atHeptagonals, despite dominating theThe Quakers had to settle for 2nd place atHeptagonals, despite dominating thesprints and jumps Despite once again finishing second to archrival Princeton, the Penn men's track and field team left Dartmouth Sunday pleasantly surprised with its performance at the Heptagonal Championships, the Ivy League postseason meet. The Quakers finished second overall at the meet, with 115.83 overall points to the Tigers' 128.5. It was the second year in a row that Penn came in second at the indoor Heps. "I think we were all very pleased to come as close as we did to winning," Quakers assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "The team performance was pushed by a lot good athletes performing at the top of their ability." Penn won five of the 19 events at the meet, more than any other school. But Princeton has one of the strongest middle-distance squads in the nation. Since those events are emphasized in the overall scoring for indoor track meets, the Tigers were able to win the championship largely on the basis of their performances in the 500- through 5,000-meter races. "They scored a lot of their points in events that we didn't score any points, like the mile and some of the relays," Quakers sprinter Chris Harper said. As dominant as Princeton was in the middle-distance events, no individual squad was as dominant as the Penn sprinters. Quakers junior Greg Davis won the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.45 seconds, while senior Henry Addo and junior Roger Beckwith finished second and third in the event, respectively. In the 400-meter dash, Penn seniors Chris Harper and Clive Brown took the top two spots. "I think I won by about 5 meters," said Harper, whose winning time was 49.16 seconds. "I didn't run terribly fast, but the whole point of Heps is to build as many team points as possible. In that respect, I did pretty well." The best Penn performance of the weekend was by senior Dave Rechtweg, who finished first in the high jump. Rechtweg set a personal best with a leap of six feet, 11 3/4 inches, falling just 1/4 inch short of the Penn record. "I didn't really realize I had set my personal best until after the meet," Rechtweg said. "I was just trying to win. I have been trying to beat seven feet for a while, though." Two other Quakers field stars had outstanding performances this weekend as well. Senior Greg Schroeder won the pole vault by bounding 16 feet, five inches, third best in Penn indoor history. Sophomore Dave Davenport won an unusually strong triple-jump competition with a leap of 49 feet, 11 3/4 inches, shattering his previous indoor mark by more than 16 inches. "To show you how strong the triple jump was, [Penn junior] Okinyi Ayungo finished third, jumping almost two feet further than he did last year, when he finished second," Taylor said. If anything, the overall competition was even closer than the point totals indicate. The Quakers lost the 4x400 meter relay to Princeton by .01 seconds. They also surrendered points in the 55-meter hurdles and the 500-meter race by .01 seconds. Penn also lost points in the high jump and pole vault competitions by less than half an inch. "If we'd had the extra centimeter or hundredth of a second in any four of those five events, we would have won the meet," Taylor said. "That shows you how close the competition really was." Despite the numerous outstanding efforts, Taylor feels some of the athletes could have done even better. "The guys on the team didn't hit on all cylinders," he said. "We had more individuals score than any other team, but a few guys just could have done a little more to help us win. I'm sure they're kicking themselves." Taylor, however, remains optimistic about the teams future. "The strength of most of the performances certainly bodes well for the outdoor season," he said.