Martin takes 800 title at IC4As as team takes fourth

The Penn men's track team finished fourth while several individuals excelled among the field. The 1998 Penn men's indoor track season ended in impressive fashion. The Quakers finished fourth out of the 51 teams that competed at the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) Championships at Cornell on March 7 and 8. Penn's 43 points placed them fourth overall at the championships, its best finish during Charlie Powell's 16-year tenure as head coach. The top three teams were Georgetown, Penn State and Manhattan, who scored 81, 65 and 44 points respectively. The Red and Blue finished above all other Ivy League representatives at the IC4As, including Princeton. Princeton won the Indoor Heptagonals the week before, but Penn outscored Princeton by a decisive 21 points in Ithaca. "It was a great meet for us," Powell said. "It legitimizes the fact that we feel we are one of the best teams in the East, and I think we could have done even better." Indeed, they could have. Penn finished only one point behind Manhattan and they ran the 4x400 meter relay without one of their best runners, junior Robin Martin. Martin had been suffering from illness for over a week going into the competition, so Powell did not run him in the 4x400 relay. Nevertheless, Martin ran in the 800-meter run, and he won the race by 23 hundredths of a second. "The fact that he won after being in bed all week is phenomenal," Powell said. Martin's victory at the IC4As culminated a remarkable season. He set a school record time in the 800-meter run and won the 500-meter dash and the 1000-meter run at Heptagonals, not to mention several other first-place finishes. "What he did at Heps proves he's an outstanding athlete," Powell said. "He won the 1000-meter against Trinity Gray, one of the best middle distance runners, and 40 minutes later he won the 500." Penn's lone second-place finish came from junior Dan Nord, who had a leap of 24 feet, 9 inches in the long jump. Nord was eclipsed only by Penn State junior John Gorham, who also won the long jump event in 1997. Nord's leap was six inches farther than the third-best jump of the weekend, which came from his identical twin brother, Jeff Nord, who competes for Brown. "I finally beat my twin brother," Nord said. "I did it on my last jump, so it was very exciting." Nord's second-place finish proved to be a great accomplishment as both a jumper and for personal reasons. In high school, the competitive twins mostly competed in different events, where Dan was usually better on the track and Jeff was better in the field. "He's probably better than half the guys at Nationals, but he didn't get the big one to help him qualify," Powell said. Nord also finished fifth in the triple jump, right in front of teammate Stan Anderson, who had jumps of 50' 1.75" and 50', respectively. "I think I definitely have a chance to win the long jump and the triple jump next year," Nord said. Penn's 1998 indoor track season closed out with its best team performance in decades at IC4As. This finish was sparked by more incredible individual accolades by many of the Quakers. The team hopes to follow up a great indoor season with an equally impressive outdoor season and perhaps a victory in the Outdoor Heptagonals.

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