Penn track rests up for Ivy Championships

The athletes of Penn track and field could certainly use a break.

Following a busy stretch of important invitational tournaments, this weekend will give them a chance to do just that.

With Ivy Championships on the horizon, most of the men’s and women’s teams will be resting this weekend.

But while those athletes get prepared for the biggest meet of Penn’s season, the rest of the team will participate in low-key meets at Haverford and Princeton on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Both of Penn’s track and field teams are coming off of highly competitive meets at Penn State and New York Armory, where all athletes performed at a high level.

“They had a big meet last weekend,” jump and multi-event coach Joe Klim said. They did really well.”

For many of Penn’s top athletes, including senior high-jumper Maalik Reynolds, this weekend will yield some well-deserved time off.

With the Heptagonal and NCAA Championships fast approaching, Penn’s athletes have faced a significantly lighter work load in training as of late.

“The work load has definitely decreased,” Reynolds said. “It’s been more maintenance work.”

Different event groups have tapered at various rates. For example, almost all long-distance runners have stopped training hard, while some middle-distance runners are still working on their speed.

Despite the differences in training at this time of year for Penn’s track and field athletes, the general theme of tapering for the Ivy Championships has remained consistent across the board.

However, from the program’s perspective, this weekend will give any individuals recovering from injury a chance to get some important competitive action.

“[Some athletes] may have been a little banged up earlier in the season,” Klim said. “They still need to train. They don’t have enough behind them to taper them.”

Additionally, Penn’s coaches still need to make some decisions regarding who will compete at Heptagonals and in what events they will compete.

“We can take 33 women and 33 men,” Klim said. “We’ll find out more [about who will compete] this weekend.”

With limited spots, there will inevitably be athletes who are unable to compete, and this weekend will provide their last competitive action until the outdoor season starts three weeks from now.

This weekend, the Quakers will do what they have done all season: build for the future. But eager fans of the Red and Blue can be sure that the “future” is only a week away.

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