Trackmen race off to Colonial Relays

The Penn State men's outdoor track and field team flexed its collective muscle at last weekend's Jim Thorpe Invitational. Over 70 teams will get a chance to see just how strong the Nittany Lions are when they face off at the Colonial Relays at William and Mary today and tomorrow.

The relays will give the Lions a chance to compete against some of the toughest teams from the East Coast. Penn State coach Harry Groves said the meet also will help his team prepare for the prestigious Penn Relays, which are three weeks away.

"This is going to be a good, competitive meet. You've got to put together four strong guys to make an impact in each relay," Groves said. "The relays will give us an indication of where we can go at Penn Relays."

Penn State will be a force in Virginia if it performs as it did at the Jim Thorpe Invitational. The Lions, in their first meet of the outdoor season, dominated their opponents, taking first in 11 of 19 events.

The Lions received strong performances from John Gorham, who earned a double victory in the long jump and triple jump, as well as from Jared Treece (pole vault), Sean Vago (high jump), Bill McGinley (shot put), John Whelan (110-meter high hurdles), Neal McNutt (hammer throw) and Joe Loner (800-meters).

Gorham said his outing was a good one to start the season.

"I was really pleased with my triple jump, because I got a personal record. It was hard to get the adrenaline up for the long jump, but I still did pretty good," he said. "I was hurt a lot during the indoor season, so I was glad that I didn't get injured at the meet."

Groves said the team did well despite having many athletes run in unfamiliar events.

"It was a good meet to start the season with," he said. "We moved a lot of people around to see what we can do at the Colonial Relays, but we still had some people get personal records."

Today's meet is the first of eight straight grueling competitions the Lions will be involved in during the next two months. Next weekend the Lions travel to Missouri to tackle the strongest teams in the Midwest at the Tom Botts Invitational.