Wet, wild Wednesday at Relays

What's the point of holding a track meet if the meet's greatest athlete is crowned before the competition begins? The crowds may not begin filling the Franklin Field stands until this weekend, but the Penn Relays decathlon and the traditional title of greatest all-around athlete was awarded in the light rain yesterday afternoon. In an odd juxtaposition of events, the various maintenance crews waited until after the first event was finished to begin making last-minute preparations for this weekend's Relay Carnival. "I would love to compete in front of everybody," Penn decathlete Eric Hyde said. "It's a little frustrating, but I like to get it out of the way and then I can just check everything out." There weren't 30,000 people in the stands -- in fact, there may not have even been 30 -- to cheer on the athletes, but that didn't stop nine men from spending 10 hours over the course of two days contesting the title eventually won by Penn State's James Cook. Cook piled up 7,458 points on the way to his second consecutive Penn Relay decathlon title. The No. 1 seed, Cook was second after the first five events on Tuesday, but stormed back yesterday with wins in the discuss and javelin events. Cook's lead was large enough after nine events to withstand second-place Phil McMullen's superb time of four minutes, 15 seconds in the 1,500, which gave him 842 points and nearly drew him even with Cook. McMullen, out of Western Michigan, finished with 7,414 points, and Greg Johnston from Dartmouth finished third with 7,160. Penn's entrant, Hyde, finished sixth with 6,717 points. Dissatisfied with his second-day events, Hyde managed to hold onto his sixth-place standing after the first day. "Yesterday was all right, but today was pretty much horrible," he said. "I started off real bad in the hurdles, and, from there until the pole vault, it was really bad." · It's a Carnival! No, it's a track meet! Carnival! Track meet! This is the tug on Penn's athletes this weekend. The excitement of the crowds, events, TV cameras and festival atmosphere will make it difficult for the Quakers to focus. There is a temptation to enjoy the activity too much and lose concentration, especially for athletes who have to wait until Saturday to compete. Another confusing aspect of the weekend is its relative proximity to the Heptagonal Championships, which are just two weeks away. While many of the schools look at the Penn Relays as their most important meet, Penn has to keep one eye on its looming league championship meet. "For our kids, it is a chance to show that we are a national-caliber team and can go out and knock heads with the big shots," Quakers men's track coach Charlie Powell said. "You have the Heptagonals coming up in a couple of weeks and the the Easterns, so you have to look at those as being the ending. But the excitement and the enthusiasm that goes on around campus? you can't take that away." Picking the Quakers out of the crowds on the track will be difficult with nearly 300 colleges competing, but there are definitely a few events to note. Dan Nord will throw himself in the mix in the jumping events. But it is called Penn Relays, not Penn Leaps or Penn Jumps, so the relay squads will receive the marquee attention. The 4x400 team has already qualified for the Heptagonal championships, and Powell expects to field a strong group for the crowd favorite 4x100 as well. "We are putting together four to five really good relays," Powell said. · Perhaps the most tired man at the end of the weekend will be Powell, who not only has to coach his team, but also has to serve as the host coach for the week. To get through it, he will rely on his veterans to serve as shepherds for the younger guys and to make sure everyone makes it to his race on time and keeps focused during what is always a chaotic and draining weekend. "My guys will tell you right before Relays I'm totally stressed out because I'm what they call the fireman," Powell said. "There are a million things that we think are done, but maybe aren't completely done and my job in the last couple days is to make sure all the little parts have people to do them. But as soon as Thursday starts rolling around, I put all my attention on my team and what goes on inside the track." · The rain didn't keep the teams that arrived yesterday from getting in final workouts. Cincinnati, Texas Christian, Long Island and Florida State had all made appearances on the track by early evening, as had some high school teams. By this morning, over 1,000 high schools and colleges will have descended on University City. · The most exciting competition of the weekend may actually take place on the Lott Tennis Courts, where Nike has set up its own track meet for kids. The standout of the layout, however, is a monstrous silver-polished 18-wheeler with a single black Nike swoosh painted on its side. The truck was being continually cleaned and polished as small green leaves knocked out of nearby branches by the rain pelted the side of the truck. · Mary Decker Slaney, known to most 18-to-24 year olds as the runner who fell down and cried during the 3,000 meters at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, has announced she will be here on Saturday to run in the women's open mile. The event, which will be featured during CBS's broadcast from 2 -4 pm on Saturday, should feature one of the meet's toughest and most internationally recognizable fields. Also included is Juli Henner, the U.S. Olympic Trials winner in the 1,500 and Sonia O'Sullivan, who was selected as Women's Track Athlete of the Year in 1995 by Track and Field News.f

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