Outdoor practices won't hurt good indoor results

Penn's men's track teams' high hopes of overcoming key personnel losses begin at the Navy Invitational. As the 1997-98 Penn men's indoor track team begins its season this weekend, their primary goal has been established: to repeat as Indoor Heptagonal Champions. Penn coach Charlie Powell feels the team should finish first or second in the Heps, something they have done six out of the last seven seasons. The Heptagonals, in which all eight Ivies and Navy compete, are similar to a conference championship. The team would also like to be one of the top 10 or 15 teams in the East, which could result in national ranking. Many of the key ingredients to last year's successful season return this year's team. Stan Anderson holds the Quakers' record in the high jump with his leap of 7 feet, 1/2 inch, which was a fraction of an inch shy of an NCAA record. Junior Dan Nord won the triple jump title at the Heptagonals last winter. Junior Robin Martin also entered the Quakers record books last season, with top times in the 500 meters and 800 meters, running them in 1:02.18 and 1:49.88, respectively. Martin's 500-meter time was best in the world last year. The junior also qualified for nationals in the half-mile. With Martin and senior men's cross country captain Paolo Frescura a part of the distance medley, the foursome has a chance to make Nationals according to Powell. Despite the multitude of returning talent, the team has a few obstacles to hurdle. The team lost Neil Riordan, who holds the second-best half-mile time in school history, Matt Wilkinson, holder of the third-best 5,000-meter time and Greg Davis, one of Penn's top outdoor sprinters. "Greg Davis is a great sprinter and a great leader, so he will be tough to replace," Powell said. A bizarre problem the indoor track team runs into every season is the lack of an indoor facility, which causes the Quakers to practice at Franklin Field year round. "Without having indoor facilities, it is surprising that we can win," Powell said. "Every team has obstacles to overcome, and this is just another one for us." Nevertheless, Penn's obstacles should be surmountable en route to another competitive season. "We are bringing back more players than some other teams," Nord said. "We need to have some freshmen step up because a lot of freshmen quit last year. The sprinters need to step up also, but otherwise we look really good." Even though last year's indoor track team won the Indoor Heptagonal Championships, Powell pointed out that this year's team may even be stronger. We will see if this is true this weekend, as the team is sending individuals to two invitationals. Roughly 30 teams are expected to participate in the Navy Invitational, so the Red and Blue will only be able to send one or two athletes per event. The rest of the team will head to Lafayette where a smaller meet is being held, therefore giving a lot of newcomers an opportunity to compete. "These two invitationals serve to get things started," Powell said. "For lack of a better word, they are like a preseason game." Regardless, this weekend's invitationals should give some indication of how competitive Penn can be at the national level. If the competitors do as well as anticipated, it will be a good indication of the future from a team with its heart set on back-to-back Indoor Heptagonal titles.

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