Frosh Burley's win paces M. Track indoors at BU

The piles of snow in Franklin Field may finally be melting away as winter nears its last legs, but the Penn men's track team still has a few weeks in which it needs to stay indoors. With just two weeks to go before the Heptagonal Championships, the Quakers traveled to the campus of Boston University Saturday to compete in the St. Valentine's Invitational and recorded a slew of impressive individual performances. Penn freshman Sam Burley was the highlight of the meet for the Quakers. The Cheyenne, Wyo., native, who took the top spot in the 500-meters with a time of 1:04.02, was the only Penn athlete to garner a first-place finish on the afternoon. Burley's victorious time, which qualified him for the IC4A Championships in early March, was good enough to place him fourth on the all-time Penn list for the 500. He surpassed Jeff McCurdy's 1:04.2 mark from 1984, and with three more years left in Red and Blue, Burley probably has a fighting chance to eclipse Robin Martin's 1997 standard of 1:02.18. Penn pole vaulter Josh Coleman, a junior, placed second in the vault on Saturday with a clearance of 15'9". Coleman's was the latest in a string of impressive performances by the Quakers in the vault. Penn has qualified four athletes for IC4As in the event and is looking to secure a fifth. Senior John Church, who has already qualified for IC4As, barely missed a new personal record at BU. "Personally for me, I'm a little disappointed. I actually vaulted my PR, but I was within a hair of a new PR, 16'6". That would have tied me for the best in the league," Church said. Church also feels that junior Luke Stokes is on the cusp of great things. "Stokes is on the biggest pole we have here, and he had a monstrous jump at 15'6"," Church said. "He should be the fifth IC4A qualifier." The Quakers sprinters ran a number of memorable races on Saturday as well. Sophomore Mike Aguilar came away from Beantown with eighth-place finishes in both the 200 (22.15) and 400 (49.50). Senior Shawn Fernandes also reminded all in attendance why he was last year's Heps indoor champion by finishing 11th in the 55 dash with a solid time of 6.56. The Penn distance squad also proffered a number of promising finishes. Senior Sean MacMillan was eighth in the mile with a time of 4:13.63, and sophomore Matt Gioffre qualified for IC4As with a ninth-place finish in the 3000 (8:24.47). In addition, sophomore Matt Caporaletti broke his PR in the 1000 by two seconds with a time of 2:33.76, which was good for 12th place.

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