Burley named All-American

Penn men's track star Sam Burley returned from June's NCAA Championships as an All-American in the 800 meter run.

In semifinal heat one, the native of Cheyenne, Wyo., finished 29/100ths of a second ahead of the third-place finisher.

By coming in second with a time of 1:48.27, Burley earned himself an automatic bid to the finals. The finals bid made him an All-American.

Burley finished seventh out of eight in the finals, crossing the finish line at 1:48.44.

Also competing in NCAAs for the Quakers were sophomore high jumper Adam Chubb and senior triple jumper Tuan Wreh.

Chubb, who also plays basketball at Penn, placed 11th in a field of 20 with a jump of 2.17 meters. Wreh took 15th in a field of 19 with a leap of 15.46 meters.

Prior to the Quakers' impressive performance at NCAAs, they had a notable team showing at the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Championships, held at William Weaver Stadium in Princeton, N.J., on May 19-20.

As a team, Penn finished with 23 points, good enough for 14th place at the high-profile meet. The Quakers slipped four spots from their 10th place finish at last year's IC4As.

Despite defeating the home team by a score of 136.5-117 at the Outdoor Heptagonal Championships during the first weekend of May, the Quakers could not keep pace with Princeton at IC4As. The Tigers garnered 43 points during the weekend, resulting in a fourth place finish.

Although the Quakers failed to oust Princeton, they did have a number of strong individual performances.

Leading Penn was Wreh, who took third place in his event with a personal-best jump of 16.04 meters.

"I was happy with my performance," Wreh said. "I recorded another small personal best, so things are moving in the right direction right now."

Wreh -- the winner of the 2000 IC4A triple jump title with a leap of 15.54 meters -- faced much stronger competition this year, which included the likes of Nathan Rollins of Georgetown. Rollins won the event and set a new meet record with a jump of 16.58 meters.

Burley's time at IC4As was more than four seconds slower than his finish just a week earlier, allowing Princeton's Ryan Smith to take first with a time of 1:49.19.

Also scoring points for the Quakers in IC4As was senior Stephen Faulk, who took fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.56 seconds.

Faulk was just a hair away from third-place finisher Xavier Chisholm of University of North Carolina-Wilmington, who was also clocked at 10.56.

Faulk also anchored the Penn 4x100 meter relay team that took fifth place in 41.60. The first three legs were run by senior Gene Sun, graduated senior Laethe Coleman and junior Brian Abram.

Penn's 4x100 was actually faster in its preliminary heat, where the Quakers ran a scorching 41.28 en route to a taking second place.

With a plethora of individual successes, Wreh felt that the coaches were satisfied with the results of the IC4A meet.

"I think they were happy with how we did," Wreh said. "It's a big meet, it's pressure-packed, and you're going against the best guys. I think we had some really good performances.

"A meet of that caliber, that's all you can ask for."

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