M. Track lands 7 IC4A qualifiers

After a disappointing performance on January 20 at the Cornell Invitational, the Penn men's track team was looking for redemption. The Quakers found it in Happy Valley. On Friday and Saturday at the Penn State Invitational, Sam Burley paced Penn's seven IC4A qualifiers, in addition to other strong performances. Penn head coach Charlie Powell summed up the performance succinctly. "We did a lot better," Powell said. Burley won the 800 meters with the second fastest time in Penn indoor track history, 1:50.57. It was the first time he has run the 800 this season. "Now we know he's in pretty decent shape," Powell said. Burley -- who was less than two seconds off the Penn indoor record of 1:48.88 held by Robin Martin -- was a mere .57 seconds short of qualifying for the NCAA National Indoor Championships. O'Neil Bryan turned in a nice race in the 55-meter hurdles, finishing in 8.12 seconds, the ninth-fastest time in Quakers indoor track history. Bryan also qualified for IC4As. Powell was very pleased with the performances of the sprinters in the 55-meter dash. Steve Faulk, in his first race this year, took 20th, while Gene Sun and Laethe Coleman tied for 28th place. Penn sophomore Brendan Callahan had a personal best throw of 49'8.25" in the shot put, a full two feet better than his previous best. "He's really finding explosion in his legs," Powell said. Powell also pointed out that Callahan had a throw of almost 52 feet that he fouled on. Tuan Wreh continued his string of strong performances. He placed fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 14.93 meters and qualified for the IC4As. "Tuan was a little disappointed with his jump," Powell said. "But he sets very high standards for himself." Penn sophomore Brian Abram also qualified for IC4As. He finished ninth in the 500 with a time of 1:05.16. Joining the list of IC4A qualifiers was freshman Anthony Sager, who qualified in his first race of the year with a 4:14 mile. He finished 16th in the extremely strong field. Rounding out the list of qualifiers were a pair of Penn seniors. Josh Coleman placed sixth in the pentathlon with a score of 3,451 points and Joe Plevelich finished the four-lap 800 in 1:53.02. Powell was pleased with this past weekend's results, especially after the Quakers' dreary meet at Cornell on January 20. "We went into the meet with specific goals, and for the most part, we met them," Powell said. Powell is hoping the Quakers will continue to get back into top form. "We need guys to compete with top-level, high-quality performances," Powell said. "Or else, we'll just get crushed."

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