Nineteen members of the men's track and field team flew to Gainesville, Fla, yesterday to compete at the Barnett Banker's Invitational Sunday.

This is a team scoring meet and last year the Lions finished in second place behind Florida.

"Florida is hard to beat because they've got everybody there; they don't have to worry about traveling," Coach Harry Groves said.

Groves called the facility, a 200-meter track with wide turns, "the best facility we get on all season."

The 12-team meet will provide tough competition for the Lions. Some of the teams competing will be Florida State, Auburn, Georgia and NCAA Champion LSU.

"The competition is really stiff," Tim Webb said.

Webb will compete in the triple jump and high jump. He said he will use the competition to get pumped up and qualify for the IC4A Championships. The team's training was planned to have their performances start to peak beginning with this meet and continue through the IC4As, Webb said.

"We've been working pretty hard and we're starting to come down now," Webb said. "It's time to get everything started."

The starting height for the high jump will be 6'7½", Webb said an athlete will need at least 7' to place in the meet. The triple jump will start at 45'0".

Also competing in the triple jump and long jump will be Ricardo Hall, who has already qualified for IC4As. Hall said he will try to qualify for NCAAs in the triple jump. The qualifying standard is 52'9".

"I'm sort of close to it," he said. "I feel pretty good going into the meet."

Hall said a lot of the teams at the meet are strong in one area, like sprints. He added that the Lions' field events are strong with C.J. Hunter and Phil Caraher competing in the shot put.

"We are a very balanced team. If we just go into the meet knowing what we have to do and do it, we will do the same as last year," Hall said.

Some other Lions include Steve Brown in the 5,000, Doug Walter and Aidan O'Reilly in the 1,600, Greg Rogers in the 55-meter high hurdles and Marshall Cannon in the 55-meter dash. Jeff Novak will run the 3,000 and Jon Strange will run the 400.

Mark Algeri and Meson Ternay will compete in the pole vault which will start at 15'. The Lions will also enter 1,600 and 3,200 relay teams.

About 20 or 25 athletes will compete at the Bucknell Invitational tomorrow. This invitational attracted about 400 athletes last year.