Trackmen going to combat at West Point

The Nittany Lion men's indoor track team looks to keep its strong start to the season going this weekend at the Black Knight Quadrangular meet at West Point, N.Y.

The Lions are coming off an impressive meet last week at the Bucknell-Hershey Relays, with two athletes, Neal McNutt in the 35-pound weight throw and John Gorham in the long jump, setting field house and meet records.

Along with those accomplishments, Gorham was named the Outstanding Field Athlete of the meet and the 4x400 relay team was named the Outstanding Relay Team of the meet.

Coach Groves said the meet at West Point is going to be an intense meet because the academies really get into scoring competition.

"You'll always get a good meet from the academies," Groves said. "Anytime you're at an academy, it's track at its finest."

The teams scheduled to compete in the meet are Lehigh, Lafayette, Edinborough and host Army.

Based on past experiences, Army is a well-rounded team with particularly good throwers and physical conditioning, Groves said.

In last weekend's meet at home, Army successfully defeated its competition with help from Kris Terril and Brad Pasho, who swept the throwing events.

Army is known to take advantage of the competition if they are not as strong in certain areas, Groves said.

Due to Big Ten regulations, the team can only travel with 28 members, but the other four teams have no restraint on how many athletes can attend the meet, Groves said.

"We'll start out even," he said. "The only advantage they may have is numbers."

Last week's meet at Bucknell wasn't a scoring meet, it was intended for athletes to get their personal marks up. This weekend is a scoring meet, and Groves said everybody has to stand up and be accounted for.

"We can't win off of a few people," Groves said. "There has to be a full team effort."

After spending time this week looking over footage of his record-setting jump, Gorham plans on competing well in the long jump.

"I saw a few things wrong in my jump last weekend," Gorham said. "I found a couple things that I could improve on in my technique."

He said his only concern in the meet is to try to score points for the team.

Sprinter Joe Loner said the team is looking forward to competing in the meet. Loner added this meet is another stepping stone toward the Big Ten meet, and that is the team's ultimate goal.

"I am definitely looking forward to seeing our team compete well," Loner said. "I think everyone will take it to them and do their best."

He added that if the team wins, it can look at the next challenge with a positive outlook.