M. Track defeated by scorecard

Penn 2nd at Cornell Invit.

Black ink on paper can be deceiving.

On Saturday the Penn men's track team placed second at the Cornell Invitational with a score of 201 in comparison to Cornell's first-place finish of 248.

Though the Quakers were clearly the stronger team, Penn fell short as it brought a less-than-complete roster to face a stacked squad of Cornell runners.

To make it tougher for the Quakers, the Big Red did not score the meet in the usual dual meet scoring fashion in which only the top three finishers are awarded points.

Instead, the meet was scored in invitational format, where the top six finishers are awarded points. By scoring the meet in this way, Cornell gave itself a huge advantage, bolstered by the sheer size of its team.

"We won the key events," Penn senior O'Neil Bryan said. "But they racked up points in a non-traditional way."

Penn actually came away with considerably more top three finishers than Cornell did. The Quakers captured first place in the majority of the running events, including the 800m, the 1000m, the 3000m, the 1 mile and the 4x400 relay.

"We really held our own in the meet, even though the score didn't show it," Penn sophomore Joe Plevelich said.

"We had only brought a limited number of the people we needed," Penn freshman Michael Lang said. "They had as many as they wanted, and so for this reason they could take up many top spots and earn many points."

On average, Penn sported two competitors per event while the Big Red had four or five. Theoretically, even if the Red and Blue swept the top spots, Cornell could then outscore them by claiming the subsequent positions.

Though the Quakers lost, Penn's confidence remains unshaken.

"We certainly don't feel like we lost." Plevelich said. "As a team we had great performances.

"We were all very well prepared, the freshman continued on strong, and we all felt good coming out of it."

Plevelich placed first in the 1000m run with a time of 2:32.26.

Other first place finishes included Penn seniors Tuan Wreh in the men's high jump and Bryan in the 60m high hurdles.

"I was injured around this time last year," Bryan said. "But I'm back this year and definitely a lot faster. I've improved a great deal."

The Cornell meet provided the Quakers with a watermark. Now, they can focus on the future.

After this weekend's Terrier Classic in Boston, Penn heads to invitationals at Penn State and Delaware before returning to State College for the PSU Collegiates.

The season will then culminate at the Heptagonal Championships four weeks from now.

"We're more confident going into Heps this year because we're more experienced and we know what to expect," Bryan said.

"We don't expect anything less than first place."

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