Martin runs for NCAA title

Robin Martin will look to follow his Heps and IC4A titles by winning the national 800 title. Capping off an extraordinary season which saw it climb to one of its best finishes ever at the IC4A championship meet two weeks ago, the Penn men's track team has the honor of being represented at the 1998 NCAA Championships. The championships, hosted by the State University of New York at Buffalo, started yesterday and will run through the weekend. Junior Robin Martin was the lone Quaker to qualify for NCAAs, where he will run the 800 meters. He recently won the 800 at both the Heptagonal and IC4A meets. The runners with the top 18 times in the nation during the course of the 1998 spring season qualified for the competition. Three preliminary heats were run last night. The top two finishers in each of the three heats and the two next best times overall qualified for tomorrow's championship race, giving the final a total of eight participants. "There's a lot of great runners in the 800 this year," Martin said. "I'd definitely like to finish in the top three, but my goal is still to win." Martin, however, is not the only person with confidence. Penn coach Charlie Powell also believes in his star athlete. "He knows how to win," Powell said of Martin. "He understands the tactics of it." Martin, who finished 14th in the 800 last year at NCAAs, is expecting the race to go out very fast. His race-winning "tactic" is to make his move early if the race starts slowly or to make it late if the race goes out quickly. Nevertheless, winning the NCAAs is hardly an easy task. Martin's competition is the best in the country, which has him curious as to how the race will go. Both Martin and Powell pinpoint Georgia Tech senior David Krummenacker -- who won the race at the 1998 Indoor NCAA Championships -- as the probable favorite going into the race. "Robin is one of the fastest and one of the strongest runners," Powell said. "The one guy who also has the whole package is David Krummenacker." Featuring some of the fastest and strongest runners in the country, the 800 meter is destined to be determined by tenths, if not hundredths, of a second. Martin, however, is one of the few participants who combines the two attributes of speed and strength, giving him an excellent chance of winning the NCAA Championship this weekend.

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