M. Track opener leaves room for improvement

Yesterday's Penn Invitational at Franklin Field was the first stop on the Penn men's track team's journey toward a second-straight outdoor Heptagonal Championship. Although the 12-team meet, which included cross-town squads from Villanova, Temple, St. Joseph's and La Salle, went unscored, the Quakers came away with at least an early-season prognosis of their chances of repeating as outdoor champs. "[This meet] is to get a feel of where we are and work on things this week," Penn senior sprinter Chris Harper said. "I think our chances to repeat are really good if we keep everyone healthy." With team standings not tabulated, the Quakers focused on excelling in the individual events. And that is exactly what Penn sophomore Kael Coleman did. Coleman ran a personal record of 21.3 seconds to win the 200-meter dash. His time already qualifies him for the IC4A championships, the end-of-the-year Eastern championship meet. Coleman was assigned to lane nine, the farthest outside lane. Because of the staggering of the lanes, the runner in lane nine has his back to the other runners and can't see his competitors. Even so, his time was almost a full second faster than his previous personal record. "I was really happy [with the time]," Coleman said. "I was unhappy with my lane at first, but in retrospect it was a good lane because I ran faster because I was scared of being caught." Two freshmen had promising starts to the season in the 800-meter run. Robin Martin won the race with a personal-record time of 1 minute, 53.3 seconds, and Paul Smith finished third with a time of 1:55.1. "I was really happy," Martin said. "I had an okay indoor season. But over spring break I stayed here to train, and I feel really strong." Martin was also a part of the winning 4x400 meter relay team, which also includes Harper, Clive Brown and Mike Stiffler. In addition to Coleman, a number of other Quakers qualified for the IC4As. Junior Doug Jackson qualified in the hammer throw with a toss of 51.16 meters. Senior Kurt Sprowls was the first collegiate runner to finish the 5,000-meter run with a qualifying time of 14:37. And Stiffler had a solid performance in the long jump with a jump of 7.11 meters, falling just one centimeter off the qualifying mark. Although Penn fared well in some events, there were difficulties. Senior Dave Rechtweg had a poor showing in the high jump, which he attributed to not being able to practice outdoors this week because of the weather and the unavailability of Franklin Field. Freshman Rich Carlson was a bright spot for the Quakers, finishing second in the high jump with a height of 2.02 meters without missing a jump. Senior Greg Schroeder also performed poorly in the pole vault, running through on all three attempts. "I never got off the ground," Schroeder said. "My approach was off. I don't understand it." Junior Daniel Short was able to clear the top height of 4.72 meters, but he finished third because of his two misses. The Quakers dominated the triple jump as sophomore David Davenport made his second-best jump outdoors. The top four finishers were all from Penn as the rest of the competitors failed to reach the pit. The Penn 4x100 meter relay team of Greg Davis, Kael Coleman, Henry Addo and Chris Harper also dominated the competition in winning by more than a second. But while the Quakers had some strong individual performances, the team has still has some room to develop. "Thirty-five to 40 percent [of the team] performed well," Penn assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "We have a lot to do to be recognized as a national-caliber team."