Many give impressive performances as men's track team readies itself for Heps

With the Heptagonal League Championships a week away, and on the weekend of Houseparties, it would have been easy for the men's track and field team to lose focus and let its performance lapse. Instead, in its fourth home meet of the season at Weaver Track and Field Stadium this Saturday, the Tigers recorded some of their most impressive individual performances of the season to date.

Most notable was senior captain Ryan Smith's season-best 800m, his second provisional qualifying time of the season. Completing two tours of the track in one hour, 47.9 seconds, Smith maintained his hold on the sixth-best time in the nation and was a mere 0.4 of a second from attaining an automatic bid to the NCAA championship meet in Baton Rouge, La.

Sophomore Josh McCaughey captured the hammer throw title with a distance of 203 feet, six inches shy of the school record he established last weekend at Penn Relays. McCaughey is currently 20th on the national list, and although a provisional qualifier, will need to improve his school record over the next 2 weekends as generally fewer than 20 competitors per event are afforded spots at the championship meet.

Despite performances noteworthy on the national scene, the real focus for the Tigers remains the same as it has been all season: reclaiming the Heptagonal title from Penn. Distance coach Mike Brady opted to rest the majority of his charges this week, opting instead for a week of concerted training with gradually reduced intensity levels with the intent of peaking at a certain race.

Clearly not resting was sophomore Jeff Bigham, as he captured the 10,000m run in a time of 31:39.27. Teammates sophomore Dusty Steinhauer (15:01.7 for 5000m) and freshman Adam Leive (3:56.5 for 1500m) also turned in impressive times.

Led by McCaughey, the throwers highlighted the weekend for the Tigers. Sophomore Rocky Craley put the shot 55 feet, one inch for the win, as did freshman Paul Lyons in the discus, throwing 155 feet, eight inches. Sophomore Tim Releford recorded a personal best of 205 feet, four inches in placing second in the javelin.

Penn is traditionally strongest in the sprints and weakest in the throws, so, as sophomore jumper Marcus Ford-Bey points out, "we'll hit them really hard in the field."

Ford-Bey finished fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 47 feet, eight inches.

The sprinters, led by a strong freshman class, have the difficult task of neutralizing Penn's traditional point of strength. Using this weekend as a warm-up of sorts, freshman Soloman Barnett finished third in the 200m in 21.83. Classmate Mike Kopp ran well in the 400m, placing third in 49.11.

A third freshman finished first: Dwaine Banton in the 100m, in 10.72.

Combined results of Penn Relays and this weekend's Larry Ellis Invitational give the Tigers much reason for confidence heading into Saturday's Heptagonal Championship, hosted by Navy.

Ford-Bey, reflecting on the season, exudes this confidence: