Men’s track takes second in Western Pa. meet

When a track team goes into a meet with a care-free attitude, does not run its premier… When a track team goes into a meet with a care-free attitude, does not run its premier athletes in their best events and openly admits it has no intention of winning, that usually means that it is headed for failure. Apparently, this rule does not apply to the Panthers.

Last weekend, the track team competed against local universities at the fifth annual Western Pennsylvania Track and Field Championships at Carnegie Mellon University. Though it was not intended, the women took first place by a landslide while the men took second.

“We went into the meet having no intention of competing for the title,” head coach Alonzo Webb said. “We did not compete in every event, and those that we did, we ran very cautiously so as to avoid injury.”

The weather last Saturday was very cold and rainy, making the conditions hazardous for the athletes. Aware of the danger, Webb told his runners to do speed work carefully, treating the meet like a practice. Running cautiously in a meaningless meet, the men’s team still managed to produce some impressive results.

Junior Chris Anderson was victorious in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Senior Mike Wray earned first place in the 110-meter hurdles with a meet record-setting time. Another senior, Jeryl Wilborn, also set a meet record en route to wining the 800-meter event. Despite running a tempo run (a workout performed at practice), sophomore Tim Konoval and freshman Sam Bair captured the first and second places respectively in the 5,000-meters.

On the field, junior Korey Gross placed first in triple jump. Freshman Adam Kielinski then won the hammer-throw. Sophomore Justin Clickett set a new meet record in the shot put, easily winning the event. Clickett also placed second in the discus.

Even though it was not his intention, Webb still felt his men should have won.

“Despite our relaxed attitude, when I realized that we could win it, I thought it would be neat to try,” he said. “We only had to run our 4X400-meter relay team to win, but some of the athletes had already left the competition.”

In actuality, the fact that some of his athletes had left the meet without notifying him of their departure perturbed Webb quite a bit. He was particularly upset because the meet had not concluded yet.

It is questionable why the Panthers even participated in the meet considering the weak competition and their less-than-100-percent effort. Webb explained that the Panthers competed for two reasons. The first was to give support to the local meet. The second reason was for recruiting purposes: Because the team is always traveling, it’s hard for recruits to see the Panthers compete. The coaching staff used this meet as an opportunity for prospective recruits, their coaches and their parents to come and see the team in action and close to home.

Even though the men, clearly dominant over the competition, failed to win, Webb said he is not concerned with acquiring local “bragging rights.”

“We do not concern ourselves with that,” he said. “We are focusing on earning respect at the national level.”

Nevertheless, Webb believed the team enjoyed competing against the neighboring universities.

“We weren’t trying to win and still ended up winning nearly every event, destroying records in the process,” Webb said. “This kind of meet really builds the kids’ confidence while allowing them to have fun, too.”