M. Track heads to Navy in search of good showing and fans

The Penn men's track team would like to begin the new year on a winning note after the Quakers ended last year with a sour taste in their mouths. The Quakers will travel to Navy this weekend to compete at the Halsey Field house for their first meet since a disappointing showing at the Harvard Invitational in early December. "We need to have a better meet," Penn coach Nathan Taylor said. "Getting into the meat of the season, the guys need to know they need to be focused and hopefully [the hard work] will pay off." Taylor attributed Penn's poor performance at the last meet to personal injuries and the fact that the athletes faced final exams following the meet. The Quakers have tried to use the lengthy winter break to their advantage rather than letting the lack of organized practice slow their progress. "Hopefully, people have done most of the workouts that they were given to do during vacation," Taylor said. "I didn't really get to throw much over break," said sophomore Kyle "Biff" Turley, a hammer thrower. "It's tough to go home and see all of the home-cooked food and the couch." Winter break aside, Taylor and the upperclassmen on the team expect the freshmen to perform this weekend. "Our freshmen got the first-meet jitters out of the way," senior co-captain Dan Nord said. "I'm expecting to see some good stuff." "The freshmen got their first meet out of their system, but now it's time to step up and perform," senior Rich Carlson said. "We expected a lot from them the first meet, and we didn't get a whole lot. This [meet] we expect them to perform well." A common goal of most of the Quakers is to improve from the last meet, but many of them would also like to qualify for the IC4As and the NCAAs that end the indoor season. "I'm basically going to look to stay healthy, keep my composure and just run well," sophomore Mike Aguilar said. "I would like to qualify for ICs and make sure I'm ready for the bigger meets that come later in the season." The Quakers are not only looking at this meet as a chance to perfect individual events, but to compete against quality teams as a whole. "William and Mary is a Colonial Conference powerhouse, [and] Wake Forest is a good ACC track team, so this is good competition," Taylor said. "Not many meets around on the East Coast will be as competitive as this one." The No. 1 priority for the Quakers is to put on a good showing at this meet, but they admit that they have an ulterior motive -- fan support. "We want groupies," Terrance "Chico" Whitehead said. The players said they hope to attract fans with their talent and exceptional good looks.