Trackmen use Invitational as warmup

The Penn State men's indoor track team hosted its first and last indoor track meet of the season Saturday, but not that many teams that showed up.

In fact, Duquesne was the only team present at the President's Invitational. Duquense coach Jim Lear said his team is actually a club, and the reason for coming was to get distance training for the upcoming cross country season.

"We would like to get more people," Groves said. "This time of year it is difficult because a lot of conference championships are this weekend."

In some of the events it was teammate against teammate, trying to boost their qualifying marks for nationals.

Some of the Lions took advantage of competing against a small field. Sprinter Ben Karcz broke the fieldhouse record in the 600-meters with a time of one-minute, 5.67 seconds Karcz and teammate Joe Hubbard were one-two the whole race and completed their goals.

"Hubbard and I were expecting to break the record," Karcz said. "It wasn't a strong mark, so we knew we could do it."

Lion thrower Neal McNutt continued to go strong in the 35-pound weight throw, finishing first with a throw of 62-1¾ feet, beating out teammate Carl Wolter who finished second with a throw of 55-3. Afterward, McNutt said he was a bit disappointed.

"My goal was to break the field house record of 62-10," he said. "I was disappointed I threw a couple inches short. I knew I could break the record."

On the other hand, McNutt is looking forward to the competition next week at Purdue. This is the first year the Big Ten has the 35-pound weight throw as an event for the championship. As of now, McNutt is the top thrower in the Big Ten, so he has good reason to be pumped.

In the long jump competition, John Gorham met some tough competition in his assistant coach, Andrew Hardyk. Gorham jumped 24-9¾, beating out Hardyk who jumped 23-9½, but Gorham as well was a little disappointed.

"I thought I could do better because I love jumping here," he said. "I am still confident I'll get a good jump."

Hardyk said Gorham is ready for the Big Ten Championship because he is jumping consistently, and a consistent jumper is often ready for a big jump.

"Gorham is a big-meet type of competitor," he said. "He is pretty strong mentally and has a lot of confidence."

Gorham's jumping teammate, George Audu, didn't compete yesterday so he could rest a nagging, season-long injury and prepare to compete at Purdue. This will be Audu's first year at Big Tens, but he said he'll benefit from not having been to the Championships.

"Injury-wise I am feeling down," he said. "If I feel better, I'm going to go out to win the Big Tens."

The Lions will take this week to prepare for the championship and try to improve on their last-place finish at last year's competition.