Although the women's indoor track team has already hosted two meets this season, it will face its first collegiate competition when it travels to the Yale Invitational this weekend.

Last year this meet attracted 40 teams, and Coach Teri Jordan expects a similar turnout tomorrow. Only individual scores, not team scores, will be kept.

"If individuals score high, it will be an indication of doing well at the ECACs since so many Eastern schools will be there," Jordan said.

If the Lady Lions' showing at the Yale Invitational in 1989 is a sign of its potential, the women should fare well tomorrow. Senior Pam Connell won the pentathalon last year. Despite this past victory, Connell has no expectations for her performance in the pentathalon or any other event.

"This is our first (intercollegiate) meet, and I don't even know who I'm competing against," Connell said. She viewed the first two meets as essentially practices.

The Lady Lions' first home meet, the Lady Lion Open on Dec. 9, was against the Nittany Valley Track Club, a local track club with members across the Centre region. The Lady Lion Invitational on Jan. 7 was supposed to match the Community College of Baltimore against the Lady Lions, but the junior college failed to show.

Jordan explained that although about 150 teams were invited to the second meet, most schools were still on break at this time. Jordan feels that this intersquad meet was still important because it motivated some runners and also allowed her to see who was ready to travel to Yale.

"I think the key thing that will play a part in when I can really see if they're doing well is (this) weekend at Yale," assistant coach Robin Johnson said.

Like Jordan, Johnson feels that the team is facing its best season ever, even after coming off last year's back-to-back indoor and outdoor ECAC titles.

Jordan was slightly disappointed that some runners didn't come back from break in prime shape, attributing this partially to sickness and lack of facilities in hometowns. The team has been working hard this week on conditioning and technical events as a result.

Overall, Jordan was pleased with the team's effort in these preliminary meets, with 11 people qualifying for ECACs in various events. Some performances she even called "outstanding."

Among these outstanding performances was sophomore Leslie Lippincott's high jump of 5'8" at the Lady Lion Invitational that qualified her for ECACs. Freshman Heather Carrick scored 3,271 points on her first pentathalon attempt to win the event at the same meet and also qualify her for the ECACs.

Junior Wendy Nelson and senior Stacy Prey each qualified in the two- mile run at the intersquad meet 10:42 and 10:43. A qualifying time in a distance event is especially noteworthy on Penn State's track because it is slightly smaller than the standard 200 meter indoor track.

The most impressive start of the season undeniably came from senior jumping captain Carmen Mann.

At the Lady Lion Open, Mann set a new school record in the long jump with a 20'4½" which provisionally qualified her for the NCAAs and beat her previous record by an inch. She also qualified for the ECACs in the 60-yard hurdles at this meet with a time of 8.2. In the triple jump at the Lady Lion Invitational Mann soared 40'0" to qualify for the ECACs.

Last year in New Haven, Mann won the triple jump with a 40'11½" that qualified her for NCAAs and set a new Penn State record. Though Mann said she hopes to repeat this feat, she is most excited about traveling and facing competition.

"I'm really looking forward to traveling. It's been a long fall, and we're ready to start moving. It should be a lot of fun," Mann said.

Jordan would also like to see other individuals and relay teams qualify for ECACs, especially the distance medley team of juniors Amanda Dudley and Leslie Hummer and sophomores Mary Beth Powers and Laurie Morrow. She also wants as many other people to qualify as possible, including members of the shuttle hurdle relay, mile relay and two-mile relays.

32 team members will be traveling to Yale. Senior Teressa DiPerna will remain at home with a slight injury and senior Becky Williams is out from illness.