M. Track shows power in Relays field events

The pinnacle of the 1998 Penn men's outdoor track season arrived this weekend when the Quakers hosted the 104th running of the Penn Relay Carnival. Amidst all the excitement that brought a record 90,000 people to Franklin Field was the host team, which placed itself among the nation's elite. The Quakers proved competitive in all aspects of the Relays, but especially shined on the field, earning its only first-place finish in the Eastern Triple Jump, where Dan Nord leaped 48'8". Penn's second-best performance, in terms of place, was senior Corey Shannon's javelin throw. Shannon hurled the javelin 217'3", which was five inches shy of Nebraska Cornhusker Scott Warren's throw. "I knew there were a lot of really good throwers, but I knew I could throw as far as those guys," Shannon said. "[My career at Penn] has been a great experience. I have to attribute a lot of credit to the coaches, especially Nathan Taylor and John Taylor." The Penn pole vaulters also had a fine showing. Sophomore Bobby Reynolds finished second in the Eastern Pole Vault by clearing the mark of 16 feet, 3.25 inches. His teammate --senior John Linhart -- finished fourth in the regular pole vault contest with his vault of 16'1.25". While the Quakers were leaving their mark on the field, the track athletes were also succeeding. In the Shuttle Hurdle Championship, the relay team of Eric Hyde, Dan Nord, Mike Aguilar and Darnel DeGand finished sixth with a time of 58.86 seconds. Clemson's time of 55.27 seconds won the race and broke the Relays record -- formerly held by the 1982 Tennessee team, which ran the shuttle relay in 55.4 seconds. "It was the toughest competition we've faced all season long," said Clemson's Greg Hines, who passed Texas A&M;'s Bashir Ramzy on the final leg. "We haven't lost all season and I didn't want to see our unbeaten streak broken." Penn's 4xMile relay team of Robin Martin, Jason Greene, Paolo Frescura and Aaron McCommons, recorded the seventh best time at the Relays and the second best result in school history with a time of 16:37.08 "We beat some great distance schools," coach Charlie Powell said. "We beat Villanova by 12 seconds." The 4x400 relay team also recorded the second-best time in Penn history. Although the 4x400 was unable to repeat as IC4A champions, its third place time of 3:09.26 was actually quicker than last year's 3:10.31 finish. One of Penn's finest individual performances came on the first two days of the five-day competition. Senior Eric Hyde finished fourth in the decathlon by accumulating 7,215 points. "I always wanted to finish in the top five, so it was a great accomplishment for me," Hyde said. Taylor placed an emphasis on the value of experience for decathletes, as he anticipates freshman Matt Newcomb and Josh Coleman, who finished 14th and 15th respectively, will reach Hyde's level in the future. "You have to know how to go into it," Hyde said. "If you do badly in one event, you have to shake it off and move on to the next event." Penn's finish to its 1998 homestand was memorable, not only because it was during the largest track-and-field event in the world, but also because the Quakers' results were world-class. Penn now hopes to translate its success at the Relays into success at the 1998 Outdoor Heptagonals, which are on May 9 and 10 at Brown University.

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