M. Track opens at Princeton

A trip across the Delaware to Old Nassau usually gets the competitive juices of any Penn athletic team flowing. When the Penn men's track team travels to Princeton tomorrow to compete in the Princeton Holiday Invitational, however, the Quakers really won't have fire in their eyes. Rather, they just want a chance to get their indoor season off to a start with a nice, preseason-type event. "We're not really looking at it as a competitive meet," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "Our guys just want to see where they are after fall conditioning." The meet at Princeton will obviously include the Tigers, Penn's close rival for both geographic and competitive reasons, as well as a host of high-quality regional programs. La Salle, Rutgers, Seton Hall, The College of New Jersey and others will send squads. Track and field is unlike most other sports in that a competitor can really only be at his peak performing condition for a very limited span of time. As a result, the Quakers are not looking to exhibit any midseason form tomorrow. They just want to have a chance to get back into the competitive swing of things. "We just want to get back into the routine of track meets," sophomore distance runner Matt Gioffre said. "We'll get a chance to see Princeton for the first time indoors, too. We think that us and Princeton are going to be right with each other at [the Heptagonal Championships]." For the Penn distance squad, tomorrow's trip to Princeton is really not much more than a drive into the country. Since these road warriors have just finished a successful cross country season, which saw them finish third at Heps, they are not as anxious to see how their training has progressed. "With the cross country guys, it's not so much a chance to see where they are as to just get a good run in," Powell said. Since winning is not of the utmost importance, Powell is holding back his two premier distance weapons -- senior captains Scott Clayton and Sean MacMillan. Penn expects Princeton to do the same with its big guns. In the rest of the running events, even though there is somewhat more of a priority to get people's feet wet, many talented Quakers will stay on the sidelines at Princeton. Team captain and 800-meter specialist Andrew Girardin will sit out with an injury. Senior sprinter and 1999 Heps champ in the 55- and 100-meter dash Shawn Fernandes will also sit out, but for different reasons. "There's no reason why you would drop a guy like Shawn right into the 55 at this point of the season," Powell said. "It doesn't make sense if he winds up getting injured." Penn's talented corps of throwers will get their first chance to shine tomorrow. Senior captain Matt Pagliosotti and junior Kyle Turley will combat a talented Tigers squad in the 35-pound weight throw. The Quakers jumpers will also look to impress at Princeton, and one of the integral parts of that success will need to be sophomore Tuan Wreh, who will compete in the long jump. Wreh excelled in the triple jump last season but the Penn coaching staff would like him to wait before he leaps back into that event. "We're not going to have him in the triple jump until mid-January or so," Powell said. After tomorrow's tune-up at Princeton, the Quakers will not have another indoor meet until January 15.