British still can't win in America

Cornell and Penn worked together to defeat two British men's track teams. Spring Fling -- time of relaxation, parties and concerts. But don't try telling that to the Penn men's track team. While most Penn students were engrossed in Fling, the tracksters were at Cornell taking their next step toward winning the Heptagonal Championships. The Quakers went to Cornell for what would be an extremely unorthodox track meet. Penn joined forces with Cornell to take on a duo comprised of Oxford and Cambridge in a combined dual meet. To add to the oddity, the Quakers were greeted by freezing temperatures mixed with snow and sleet in Ithaca, N.Y. "Getting to Cornell and seeing the conditions really changed the focus of the weekend," Penn assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "It was the ugliest day I have ever seen for an outdoor meet, and all that we wanted to do [by then] was to win and escape without any serious injury." The Quakers followed through on their plans, as the Penn-Cornell squad shook off the harsh and strange conditions of the meet and defeated the British by a score of 105-75. The Quakers further helped their cause, because nobody suffered an injury serious enough to keep him away from the upcoming Penn Relays this weekend. The Quakers formula for success at this meet was somewhat different than previous meets. Leaving sophomores Robin Martin and Dan Nord -- who always bring in much needed team points -- in West Philadelphia, Penn had to look to other individuals to step up. And step up they did, as some unlikely heroes emerged on Saturday. Picking up the slack in a major way was junior Eric Hyde. Hyde won the 110-meter hurdles in a personal record time of 14.98 seconds. But he was not done for the day, as he came back in the long jump and won that event also with a leap of 6.90 meters. Also turning in a strong performance in the sleet was freshman Shawn Fernandez. Fernandez won the 100-meter dash in a time of 10.96 seconds by edging out teammate and second place finisher senior Greg Davis by just .04 seconds. The good news kept coming for the Quakers from the increasingly threatening pole vault tandem of junior John Linhart and senior Dan Short. Linhart and Short went one-two in the pole vault, both clearing 15 feet, 5 inches. The performance in Cornell, although not the best display of individual feats, put the Quakers well on their way to winning another Heptagonal Championships. For starters, the win showed depth in the Penn program. Missing what could arguably be their two best point scorers and still being able to win a meet handily means that there are other members able to score making the team extremely well-rounded. This depth coupled with the confidence of the Quakers, who just in the previous weekend crushed arch-rival Princeton in a dual meet, should make Penn the team to be reckoned with come time for Heps. Having already disposed of Princeton, which is one of the better teams at Heps, the Quakers now sit in a proverbial position where the only team that can beat them is none other than themselves.