M. Track finishes third at Heptagonals

It was an exhausting weekend for the Penn men's track team. Among injuries, illnesses, shouts and starting guns, the Quakers vied for the Heptagonal Championship this past weekend at Dartmouth where all eight Ivy League teams competed, along with the Naval Academy. It was the Quakers' lack of depth that kept them from the crown, as they ended up in third place with 70 points, finishing behind Cornell and Princeton. The Big Red claimed the title with 130.5 points. Those who did run, however, came out with remarkable finishes, many of which qualified them for the IC4A championship meet. The upperclassmen garnered all four of the team's first-place finishes, taking the team from seventh place after day one to it's respectable third-place finish. Penn junior Chris Edmonds dominated the pack in his 400-meter race in the preliminary as well as the final round with a time of 48.54, qualifying him for the IC4A competition. Senior Sam Burley finished fifth in the 400m, just over one second behind in 49.73. Burley, though, had already qualified for the IC4As. Burley did however go on to take first place in the 1,000m in 2:26.74. He was also the second leg of the 4x400m team ( Brian Abram, Burley, Chris Carter, Edmonds), which grabbed second place. "I'm not too disappointed about the times," Burley said. "This meet is really all about places. Unfortunately, we really just didn't have the depth to get us to first." Fellow senior Brian Abram pulled out a first-place finish in the 500m in 1:04.61. Abram has qualified to run in five events for the IC4As -- the 55m, 60m, 200m, 400m, and 500m. Junior Matt Wedge grabbed the Quakers fourth first-place finish with a win in the 60m hurdles. After dominating the pack in the preliminary round, Wedge went on to win in the finals with a time of 7.98 seconds. Senior Jared Shoemaker finished less than three-tenths of a second behind to take fourth place. He qualified for the IC4A's in the 55m race. Though not running his best time, junior Joe Plevelich pulled out a sixth place in the 800m in 1:53.55. Plevelich had already qualified for the IC4A's earlier in the season. He expressed the general sentiment of the weekend by stating, "we did the best we could with what we had." "We were really outmanned on the field," Plevelich said. "We would've liked to be in Cornell's position and beat Princeton, but we just didn't have enough guys out there to score points." Sophomore Neal Wojdowski, who previously qualified for the IC4A's, vaulted 4.8m -- a height he has achieved many times before. "With all that was going on out there, I just don't think the scores on paper really reflect how I jumped or the team ran as a whole," Wojdowski said. "I cleared 4.95m, then tipped the bar on the way down -- it was frustrating for me. The chips just didn't fall in the right place for me." The IC4As, which open Saturday, will be the last meet for the majority of the team. Only Burley and sophomore Dusty Lieb have qualified for the NCAA Championships. Burley is looking past the upcoming IC4A's to the looming NCAA Championships. "I'm really just focusing on nationals right now. I'll be staying here for break to train, so I really want to perform well there."

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