Near-miss for M. Track at home

The Penn men's track team entered last weekend ready for a battle against Penn State, Villanova and Princeton.

Suffice to say, the feline trio gave them all they could handle.

The Quakers won three individual events and racked up 170 team points, but lost by a whisker to the Nittany Lions and Tigers, who finished first and second with 190 and 184 points.

The Wildcats finished a distant fourth with a team score of 106.

"It was very close [at the top]," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "We had some not-so-favorable things happen."

The "things" to which Powell alluded include the injury to senior hurdler O'Neil Bryan -- described by Powell as a "hamstring twinge" -- and Adam Chubb's continued absence from the Penn lineup due to a sore ankle.

Wins by either Bryan or Chubb could have made the difference between the third spot and the first.

Another subplot at the quad meet was the 800 meters, which featured some of the top runners in the country, including Penn junior Sam Burley.

Burley finished third in the loaded field -- but winning the race was Burley's rival, Ryan Smith of Princeton.

"It was a poor race," Burley said. "Nothing good came out of it.

"It was a difficult field, but I just didn't run that well."

Despite Burley's disappointing result, Powell was 'not concerned.

"Sam is in a very heavy training cycle," Powell said, "so he's going to get beat sometimes."

With Burley beaten and others sidelined, the Quakers needed to get their points from other sources.

And Penn's field competitors stepped up to fill the void.

Penn junior Justin King claimed the discus with a throw of 163'2". He was followed by a teammate, sophomore Tom Von Reichbauer.

"I was surprised because I didn't think my throw was that good," Von Reichbauer said. "I felt things starting to click, but I've definitely got some more in me."

In addition, Red and Blue sophomore Brian Chaput continued his season-long tear, decimating the javelin field by 20 feet. Chaput was sidelined with an injury for most of last season.

"He's just that much better," Powell said. "He's one of the top kids in the country."

Rounding out the winning individuals for the Quakers was junior Brian Abram in the 400 meters in a time of 47.59 seconds. Second place also belonged to the Red and Blue, as sophomore Chris Edmonds finished in 47.68.

The Quakers are now turning their attention to the future. After next weekend's meet at Lafayette, the schedule starts to get rocky.

Our agenda "is to get ready for [NCAA] finals," Powell said. "After next weekend we've got the Penn Relays, Heps, IC4As and finals."

According to Von Reichbauer, the Quakers now know what it will take to succeed amidst such a schedule. And the Penn Relays -- set for April 25-27 at Franklin Field-- will be that all-important starting block in the Quakers' drive to the NCAA Championships.

"The Penn Relays are a lot of fun from an individual perspective," he said. "It'll be a good chance to size myself up against national competition.

"It's also another chance to compete here at home and to get momentum."

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