Matt Meltzer: Spring titles? Try again next year

Spring is in the air.

Punxsutawney Phil may disagree and Locust Walk may be lined with snow, but professional baseball teams have made their annual pilgrimages to Florida and Arizona, and in my mind that alerts the beginning of spring.

And for Penn athletics, spring is just around the corner too.

For the average Quakers fan, that may not be so exciting. By my count, Penn has won 146 total Ivy League championships, but just 36 of them in the spring. And the men's track team is responsible for 14 of those.

The spring can be especially sobering given the tremendous success the Quakers have experienced in the winter. The 11 winter sports teams have earned 65 titles, with the men's basketball team accounting for 24 of them. The drop-off from winter to spring can feel more like an allergy to pollen than a breath of fresh air.

Spring has normally been a time of futility for the Red and Blue, stumbling through baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis, golf and track.

However, things are looking up for the sunshine soakers of spring. This might not be the year of multiple championships, but Penn teams are progressing towards winning more in the future.

If any teams are going to take home titles, the men's and women's tennis teams have the best shot. The men's squad (1-7) will be seeking revenge after taking home a share of the Ivy title last year with Brown but missing the NCAA Tournament. They return a veteran team and lost very few impact players to graduation.

The women's team (5-1) made the tournament last year with an at-large bid and even beat Tennessee in the first round before losing to Georgia Tech. However, in order to earn their first Ivy title since 2002 they will need to account for the losses of three seniors.

Other teams, barring a miracle, will end the season yet again without a trophy. The team to most recently win a title is men's track, which was victorious at the outdoor Heps in 2002. Otherwise, the most recent title is the 1998 men's golf team.

Other teams to keep an eye on are the young men's lacrosse team and the rebuilding

baseball team. The men's lacrosse team has not won a title since 1988 and likely will not this year either, especially given the strength of Princeton and Cornell. Coach Voelker has 14 freshmen and 12 sophomores on the team. To watch the evolution of talent, these are the guys to watch.

For baseball coach John Cole, he finally has the opportunity to start molding the team with his own philosophy as he has brought in his first recruiting class. It will take time to see whether he can achieve the championship form he had at Rowan, where he brought his team to two Division III World Series. Regardless, he has no place to go but up after finishing 7-13 playing in the Lou Gherig division of the Ivy League last year.

For the Quakers, things have seemed much brighter indoors at the Palestra, on the wrestling mat, and the fencing piste than in the outdoor glory of Franklin and Murphy fields. While these next few months may not be one of multiple titles, for the Quakers, hope springs eternal.

Matt Meltzer is a senior political science major from Glen Rock, N.J. His e-mail

address is meltzerm@sas.upenn.edu.

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