IC4As loom for ailing M. Track

After what Penn men's track coach Charlie Powell called one of the greatest performances in Penn indoor track history, the Quakers may have to come back down to earth. Penn will be running, jumping and throwing against some of the best competition on the East Coast at the IC4A Championships this weekend in Boston. Last weekend, the Quakers finished a surprising second at the Heptagonal Championships, finishing behind only Ivy League powerhouse Princeton. That performance surpassed all expectations, and Penn will be looking for a similar effort this weekend. "It's tough to get ready to run after Heps," Powell said. "But hopefully we'll be able to have a good meet." The Quakers will be counting on the same runners who have been going strong all season. However, standout sophomore Sam Burley will not be running in the 800 meters, his best event, due to a foot injury. "We're gearing everything towards Nationals," Powell said. "Hopefully we can rest Sam now and have him run well later." Burley qualified for Nationals with a time of 1:49.35 earlier this season. However, only the top 16 times will compete at the National meet, and Burley's time has slipped from 4th to 11th. "We still think he will go to Nationals," Powell said. "As long as there isn't an explosion of fast times this Friday and Saturday, he'll go." Although he will not run in the 800, Burley might run in the 4x400 meter relay. Currently, that team consists of Burley, senior Laethe Coleman, freshman Chris Edmonds and sophomore Brian Abram. A trio of sprinters -- junior Gene Sun, junior Steve Faulk, and Coleman -- will also be competing for the Quakers in IC4As. Additionally, Abram will run in the 500, an event he won at Heps. "I hope I can continue the success I had at Heps at IC4As," Abram said. "It'll take something like how I ran at Heps to do well." Penn junior Tuan Wreh, who qualified in the long and triple jumps, will only compete in the triple jump at IC4As. He will sit out of the long jump competition due to hamstring problems. Powell said that if Wreh were 100 percent, he would have an excellent shot at qualifying for nationals. In his current state, however, Wreh will have a tough time meeting the 51'8" distance for the triple jump. In the team scoring, this meet will probably not compare to last weekend's meet. Although the Quakers do have many national-caliber runners, they lack the depth to compete effectively on a national level. "We have a number of good competitors," Abram said. "Although we lack the depth, we've posted high scores with a group like this before." With their performance last weekend, the Quakers placed many runners in the top 10 on Penn's all-time indoor list. Abram's 1:03.89 time in the 500 placed him fourth, while O'Neil Bryan's winning 60-meter hurdles time of 8.09 seconds placed him fifth. Junior Mike Aguilar also placed in the top 10 in the hurdles. Additionally, Sun's and Faulk's times in the 60-meter dash placed them in the top 10, while freshman Joe Plevelich and senior Bryan Kovalsky placed in the top 10 in the 800 and 3000, respectively. "I was really proud of the way our guys ran last weekend, and the records show that," Powell said. "Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to turn in another good performance."

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