M. Track loses Heps title to Tigers

The Quakers were unable to defend their outdoor title, as Princeton edged Penn to win by two points. There is no team a Penn athlete hates losing to more than Princeton, and on the weekend of May 9-10, the Penn men's track team was forced to experience that pain for the third time this year at the 64th annual Heptagonal Championships, hosted by Brown. The Quakers were unable to defend their 1997 Outdoor Heps title as they finished in second place with 147 points, two short of Princeton's 149. Previously, Penn finished second behind their archrival at the 1998 Indoor Heps, and they also lost to the Tigers in an outdoor dual meet earlier in the season. "We thought we could win, and I thought we should win," Penn assistant coach Nathan Taylor said. "It was the first meet in a long time where we weren't sharp." Despite the inability of everyone to perform at their highest levels, the highlight of the meet -- which was played through two days of pouring rain -- was the performance of junior Robin Martin. Martin won the 800 meters in 1:52.26, .26 seconds faster than Princeton's Peter Kimball. He also finished second behind Brown's Trinity Gray in the 400 meters with a time of 47.5 seconds and ran the anchor leg for the first-place Penn 4x400 relay team. With his three superb performances, Martin was named Outstanding Male Athlete of the Meet. He is the first Quaker to earn the distinction since 1993 when Mamadou Johnson set the Eastern Collegiate pole vault record. "Robin was one of a few people who I felt couldn't do any better at the meet," Taylor said. Along with Martin's achievements, Penn had several second place finishes on the puddle-filled track. Senior Kael Coleman finished one-tenth of a second behind Brown's Mike Powell in the 100 meter dash. In the 400 meter intermediate hurdles, sophomore Craig Douglas ran 53.59 seconds, 0.27 seconds shy of first place. Finally, sophomore Sean MacMillan was only 2.25 seconds slower than Dartmouth's Parker Pruett in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. On the field, Penn continued its mastery of the triple jump. The Quakers claimed four of the top six spots, as Stan Anderson, Okinyi Ayungo, Dan Nord and Eric Hyde finished second, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Sophomore Matt Pagliasotti had one of two first place finishes for Penn throwers. His hurl of 160'2" in the discus bested Yale's Brian Yates by almost two feet. "It was the first time we won the discus in 17 or 18 years at that meet," Taylor said. The other first place finish came from senior Lucas Deines in the hammer throw. Deines had a toss of 193'6", which was his personal record and the fourth best in Penn history. "He set a PR under those conditions, which was phenomenal," Taylor said. "He was very calm and level-headed and didn't get distracted by the rain." Despite the many accolades earned by the Red and Blue at Heps, the team was unable to win the extremely close meet. "I'd say there were thirty instances where we could have been one place higher," Taylor said. All the Quakers needed were a few extra points and they could have repeated as champions. Penn still had impressive performances, but, unfortunately, not everyone was "sharp", so the Quakers settled for a respectable -- but disappointing -- second place. The team continues its season this weekend at the Outdoor IC4As.