Trackmen set for Colonial

By MATT WONG
Collegian Staff Writer

With the first meet of the outdoor season out of the way, the Penn State men's track and field team is geared for the "real" competition.

After hosting last week's Jim Thorpe Invitational, the Nittany Lions are off to an impressive start and are hoping to continue that trend today and tomorrow at the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Va.

Penn State coach Harry Groves and his team will use this meet to concentrate on relays, and they are also looking forward to gaining early experience against tougher competition. The Lions will focus on running in the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, the sprint medley and the distance medley relay in addition to competing in individual events.

The Colonial Relays will be the Lions' first scored meet of the season where only the relay events will be scored. Co-captain John Gorham and the Lions are ready to get the "real" season underway.

"After a good tune-up meet," he said, "everyone feels good and anxious to go against good competition."

And there will be plenty of tough competitors at this meet, as opposed to last week's open invitational, which consisted of mostly Lions. There will be about 50-60 teams represented at the Colonials.

Despite the lack of dominant competition at last week's open invitational, the Lions came away with high marks in addition to numerous first-place finishes.

High jumper Ryan Olkowski picked up where he left off in the indoor season, clearing the bar at seven feet. Also, Ben Karcz and Chris McGinness captured wins in two events. Karcz won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and 110-meter high hurdles, and McGinness took the 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter run.

Due to the Lions' early success, the transition from indoors to outdoors has looked smooth thus far, and co-captain Joe Hubbard says the extra surprise of nice weather has also helped.

"Usually we have a slow start because it's colder and windier," he said. "But this year we can't complain."

But more than the weather, it is the team's confidence that has gotten it off to the quick start.

"We're a better team outdoors and we're anxious to get this season started," Gorham said. "We're ready to go."