M. Track training in the cold, set for Navy

If you walk down Locust Walk any evening this week, you can hear hordes of freshman males complaining about the cold weather as they make the trek from rush party to rush party. Imagine having to run for miles in this weather and having to abstain from at least some of this week's festivities because of your upcoming match against some of the nation's finest athletes. Such is the life of the Penn men's track team today as it prepares for a competitive weekend meet in Annapolis, Md. against Navy, William and Mary, Mount Saint Mary's and Virginia Commonwealth. "It is difficult doing workouts by yourself, especially outdoors," Penn senior co-captain Brian Abram said. "It builds character for a lot of the guys, which was shown over the break." Thankfully, Saturday's match will be indoors. "We do not have any indoor facilities," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "So we have to make due with what we have." After a good showing at the Princeton Invitational on Dec. 7, a match Powell said the team treated as "preseason," the Quakers will face a Navy squad that went undefeated last season this Saturday. "They have had good 800 [meter] and distance [runners] in the past," Abram said. "Their strengths are the 500, 800 and 1000 indoors." Powell and Abram have little knowledge about the other competing teams -- historically Penn only faces the Midshipmen and not the other teams in the meet. "We were expecting just Navy as a dual meet, like we did last year," Abram said. "That's how we portray it in our minds, just between us and Navy. "[The other schools] are in different leagues, but specifically they are not in Hep[tagonal]s with us -- Navy is. That is why we specifically look toward Navy." Abram placed first at the Princeton Invitational in the 500 meter with a time of 1:05.15, more than 1.5 seconds faster than the quickest Navy runner in the Midshipmen's 66-79 loss against Princeton in their opening meet. Penn senior Sam Burley joined Abram in the winner's circle at Princeton, taking the 1000 meter run. Like Abram, Burley's time at the Princeton Invitational was significantly faster than the Navy runners' times when they faced Princeton -- Navy winner Raymond Driscol ran a 2:29.21,over three seconds slower than Burley's equivalent time. At one point last year, Burley was ranked third nationally in the 800 meter run. Even after a three-week break, Powell does not think the time off will hinder his team's performance. "Our guys are always in season pretty much all-year round, Powell said. "Everything they had to do [over break] was on their own. They stayed in shape." Despite being in shape, however, the Quakers will have to compensate for athletes lost due to graduation at their first serious winter season meet. "Penn has traditionally been a sprinting and a jumping team," Abram said. "We lost our good jumper last year, we still have our good runners, but we have many freshman jumpers to fill that hole. "I think our distance runners are going to surprise a lot of people. They did well at Heps, so they know what it takes to win and will be key to our success this year."

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