M. Track changes its pace on Sunday

The Penn men's track team will host its second and enter its third consecutive invitational meet at Franklin Field this Sunday. The University of Pennsylvania Invitational is an unscored meet boasting some of the East Coast's strongest track programs. Penn will square off against the likes of Manhattan, Villanova, arch-rival Princeton, Temple and Saint Joseph's. The Quakers are looking for strong performances on Sunday, in a meet which, although unscored, promises to provide top-notch competition. The Quakers will look to this weekend as a pressure reliever before the scored season begins. This being their third and last unscored meet until the week before the Heptagonal Championships in May, Penn hopes to try different things and run as many people as possible in the various events. The meet, therefore, becomes more of an individual showcase than a strict team meet. "We're going to put people in some unfamiliar events," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "The change should add to the level of competition because many of the individual events will be much tougher." This is what sets this meet apart from most others. The University of Pennsylvania Invitational has no team points or performance pressure. Therefore, there is not as much strategy involved when picking who will be competing in which events. This causes certain events, especially the middle distance ones, to get stacked with strong competitors. For example, take the upcoming 400-meter run. The 400 looks to have an incredible field, including Penn sophomore phenom Robin Martin. The field literally has four or five runners capable of winning. Normally, these four or five athletes would disperse over the middle distances. But, because of the unscored aspect of the meet, the 400 will feature all of them, making for a potentially great race. The mile also promises to be a tough race. Strong mile runners are coming in from Princeton, Villanova, and Manhattan, not to mention the Quakers' dynamic duo of juniors Aaron McCommons and Paolo Frescura. Again, in a scored meet there probably wouldn't be such a plethora of talent in one event. But in an invitational, especially one which is low key like Sunday's, strong fields such as the ones in the mile and 400-meters can be produced. There are individual Quakers who look to stand out on Sunday as well. Junior Lucas Deines, coming off a personal best in the 16-pound hammer throw last weekend, will lead the way for the individual achievers. Deines threw 189 feet last weekend and needs just four more feet to qualify himself for the NCAA Championships in Bloomington, Ind., in June. "Lucas has been working really hard and practicing extremely well this week," Powell said. "He came up with some monster throws this week [in practice] and I wouldn't be surprised if he threw over 210 feet on Sunday." Sunday's meet, although downplayed in certain respects, should still prove to be interesting. The individual athletes will be on display with little pressure and and a lot of slack. The only thing that's on the line this weekend is pride, which should provide an entertaining track meet.