M. Track battles British travel partners

Cornell is supposed to be an Ivy rival for Penn. But last summer, the Big Red and Quakers men's track teams broke down the Ivy walls between them; the two programs competed jointly against teams in England. Cornell and Penn will again be foes this Saturday, however, as the Quakers (0-1, 0-0 Ivy League) travel to Kane Sports Complex for a 10 a.m. dual meet against the Big Red (2-1, 0-0). "A lot of the rivalries that were kind of snarling [went] by the board," Cornell coach Lou Duesing said. "That happens when you're a combined team going against Oxford and Cambridge." The connection between the two programs goes further than just last summer's trip. Cornell triple jumper J.P. Pollak, who transferred from Penn last year, will jump against current Quakers Stan Anderson and Tuan Wreh on Saturday. "It's an underlying thing that [Pollak] needs to be beaten every time out," Wreh said. "We need to show him that our triple jumpers are just better. We don't want him to think he can go to another school and their program will be better than [Penn coach] Charlie Powell's." Pollak finished sixth in the triple jump at the Indoor Heptagonals, 3'5" behind Anderson's first-place jump. Anderson will also face tough competition in the long jump. The Penn senior won the long jump with a 22'9.25'' leap last Saturday against Princeton, but Cornell had two jumpers -- Nat Toothaker and Nick Senter -- over 22 feet the same day in the Columbia Open. One of the top matchups on Saturday will feature Penn's Andrew Girardin and Cornell's Greg Cipolaro in the 800 meters. Cipolaro, the indoor Heptagonals champ in the 800, has consistently beaten the Penn sophomore. But Girardin's time last weekend (1:52.0) was 69/100ths of a second faster than Cipolaro's. "It should be a good, tough race," Duesing said. "Greg has a faster personal best (1:50.9) but it'll probably be something like elbow to elbow." Girardin will also be racing against the clock on Saturday. He needs to run 1:51.6 to qualify for IC4As. The pole vault competition should also be tight. Two Big Red seniors -- Nathan Jauvtis and Greg Schlachter -- will be chasing Penn's Aaron Prokopec. The Quakers sophomore finished first at the Indoor Heptagonals and cleared 16'6'' last Saturday. Juniors Bob Reynolds and John Church could also factor in the pole vault scoring for the Quakers. Last year, Penn trounced Cornell in this dual meet, 114-49. But Cornell -- which holds a 47-39 advantage in the all-time series -- has been more competitive this season. "Any team has a chance to beat any other team," Girardin said. "Our guys are working real hard and 50 percent of our team PRed [against Princeton]. Hopefully, we can get the other half of the team to PR." According to Penn junior Sean MacMillan, the Quakers will have no shortage of motivation against Cornell on Saturday. "We want to beat them because we know them," he said.

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