Fernandes breaks record for M. Track

The top-ranked competitors on the Penn men's indoor track team travelled to Annapolis Friday to compete in the Navy Invitational. Roughly thirty teams were represented at Navy in this individual competition, but team scores were not kept. "It was a good way to start the season," Coach Charlie Powell said. "We would have won if they kept score." Friday's meet produced excellent results -- several of Penn's school records were challenged one was even broken. Shawn Fernandes proved the irony in his nickname, Turtle, as he broke the 21-year-old Penn indoor track record with his 6.0 second 55 meter dash, a performance good enough for a first place finish at the meet. "I'm still in shock from his run," Powell said. "What he did was pretty unique." "I just started practicing because I was injured, so this is a huge confidence booster," Fernandes said. "Once I'm back in shape and into the swing of things, I hope I can break my record. Plus, I still have two more years after this one to break the record, so I'm confident that I can beat my time before I leave Penn." And Fernandes wasn't the only Quaker to perform well at the meet. Senior John Linhart's winning pole vault of 16 feet, 8.75 inches placed him third in Penn's all-time record book. The distance medley team -- composed of Aaron McCommons, Matt Bieber, Robin Martin and Paolo Frescura -- won the race with a time of 9:57.3. Frescura ran the mile-long anchor leg in 4:08. The team's time of 9:57.3 is second best in Penn's history. "We feel we should beat that mark later in the season," Powell said. Also finishing in first-place for the Quakers was junior Stanley Anderson. Anderson's triple jump of 49 feet,1 inch topped teammate Dan Nord's jump, which was the second best of the meet. "Anderson and Nord looked rusty, but jumped especially far for the first meet," Powell said. With their excellent season debut, many members of the indoor track team qualified for the IC4As -- Linhart in the pole vault, Anderson and Nord in the triple jump, Fernandes in the 55 meters and the distance medley team all clinched a spot at the Cornell meet on March 7-8. Anderson also qualified in the high jump with his leap of 6 feet 9 inches. Qualifying as well was Mike Stiffler, third among the 400 meter runners with a time of 49.7 seconds. Penn pole vaulter Bobby Reynolds was another qualifier with a 16 feet, 2.75 inch pole vault. The mile relay team rounded out the future IC4A competitors with a time of 3:21.5. The great individual accomplishments of the Red and Blue on Friday are a solid indicator of things to come. This resulted in an excellent start to what potentially could be a season filled with record breaking.

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