Tigers edge M. Track at outdoor Heps

Princeton and Penn lapped field, as no other team broke 100 pts. Although many athletes from the Penn men's track team will be competing in the IC4A Championships this weekend, the team season ended two weekends ago at Yale with the Heptagonal Championship, which is the end-of-the-year conference championship for the Ivy League and Navy. The Quakers performed well, but fell short of their goal of beating Princeton and winning the Heps crown. "We had a good meet and Princeton had a phenomenal meet," Penn co-captain Greg Schroeder said." We didn't feel like losers, but we were disappointed." After winning the outdoor Heptagonal Championships last spring, Penn had high expectations for the meet this year. Coming off a strong performance at the Penn Relays the previous week, Penn finished in second place at Heps, behind only the Tigers. Quakers freshman Robin Martin won the 800-meter run in under 1 minute, 50 seconds, setting a new personal record in the process. Penn junior Neil Riordan took second, also with a personal best time, to give the Red and Blue the top two spots. "It's one of the best races I've ever seen," said Schroeder, who placed second in the pole valut with a jump of 16 feet, 3 inches. "There were many promising performances for the future. Next year's team is going to be a solid team." Penn freshman J.P. Pollak jumped a career best in the triple jump as the Quakers triple jumping squad took four out of the top six places in the event. Penn co-captain Chris Harper won his fourth consecutive 200-meter event at the Heptagonal Championships, but did not perform as well in the open 400 meter-event or the 4x400 relayu. Throwers Matt Spoerndle and Corey Shannon placed first and third, respectively, in the javelin. Both threw personal record distances. Spoerndle won the event with a throw of 64 meters, and Shannon was able to let loose a toss of 61.98 meters despite an ailing back. Shannon actually fell from secodn to third in the final despite tossing a personal record. "It was bittersweet," Shannon said. "I was happy to throw well, but disappointed that I fell to third." The Quakers performed well in what seemed to be just a dual meet between Penn and Princeton. The Red and Blue scored 135 points, about 50 points less than the Tigers. No one else even broke 100 points. "None of the other teams hurt Princeton," Shannon said. After a long season, the Quakers firmly established themselves one of the top two teams in the league. And with the promising performances from many of the younger athletes, Penn jow looks ahead to next year-and another shot at Princeton.