Trackmen fall short to Flashes

By MATT WONG
Collegian Staff Writer

During last year's outdoor season, the Penn State men's track team came out with a one-point victory against Kent State.

This weekend, during the indoor season, the Golden Flashes returned the favor.

In a meet with no margin for error, it came down to the last event -- the triple jump -- where the Nittany Lions had to place first and second to win the overall competition Saturday at the Doug Raymond Invitational in Kent, Ohio.

Strong in the event, the Lions were confident in their chances. Co-captain John Gorham took first in the event with a leap of 46 feet 7-1/4 inches, but Kent State's Isaac Perkins placed second, crushing the Lions' hopes and giving Kent State a one-point heartbreaker.

"We were really surprised by the outcome," Gorham said. "We were expecting to pull it out in the end."

But they didn't pull it out. By falling short by several inches, Kent State outscored the Lions 151.50 to 150.50, suffering their first loss of the season and a much more quiet bus ride home than usual.

The team is disappointed but not completely down after the loss. They understand the team can't win them all, but the fact that it was so close makes the loss even harder for them to swallow.

"We came in knowing it was going to be a tough meet," sprinter/long jumper George Audu said. "We tried our best but we made some mistakes. It's very disappointing."

And it was the mistakes and the sub-par performance that cost the Lions their undefeated record, Audu said, placing them second among the four teams. The Lions defeated West Virginia (96.50) and Bowling Green (91.50).

Despite being disappointed and upset by its performance, Gorham said his team is not down and gives a lot of credit to Kent State and the rest of the competition for putting up a good fight.

But, unlike the bus ride, the Lions definitely didn't lose quietly.

In addition to winning the triple jump, Gorham came away with a win in the long jump, leaping 24-2. Also, Ryan Olkowski proved last week wasn't a fluke by capturing first in the high jump for the second week in a row. The distance medley relay team took first place honors, while Carl Wolter won the weight throw competition, and Bradd DelMuto won the one-mile run.

The Lions are looking forward to putting the meet behind them and want to make sure they don't make the same mistakes again.

The team will try to fix those errors as they prepare for their meet Saturday at Princeton, N.J.