Stacy Prey, the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter relay teams all ran season bests Sunday to lead the women's track team to a fourth-place finish at the Florida Invitational.

Prey improved her NCAA provisional qualifying time with a personal best (16:22.88) in the 5,000 meters, placing second. Though she is still off the automatic qualifying mark by four seconds, Prey holds the third best collegiate time in the nation this year.

"I still have a couple more weekends (to qualify). I'll probably try to hit the automatic mark at Easterns," the senior distance captain said.

Junior Wendy Nelson also had a personal best in the 5,000 (17:20) placing fifth.

The 3,200-meter relay team of senior Pam Connell, junior Teressa DiPerna, and sophomores Laurie Morrow and Mary Beth Powers placed second to Wisconsin (8:55.02). They skimmed over six seconds off their somewhat mediocre time at the Millrose Games last week, even though Powers had a cold.

"We all ran as best we could, but we were a little disappointed that we were only a second off (the provisional qualifying mark)," Powers said.

Disappointed? Yes. Discouraged? No.

They still have a couple meets left to improve their time, and Coach Teri Jordan is confident that they will qualify for nationals. Members of the 3,200 relay team agreed.

"We just need another chance. The potential is there," Powers said.

The 1,600-meter relay team faces a similar situation. When it placed fourth (3:47.36) in the meet, the team took eight seconds off its Millrose time, coming within two seconds of the NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

"I was really surprised. I didn't think we all had it in us because it was the last event. Now that we're so close, I know we can do it," relay team member Jackie Brown said.

Senior jumping captain Carmen Mann believes it might be easier to qualify if the 1,600-meter relay team members sacrifice some individual events in the upcoming meets, but she said that would be a personal choice.

Brown unknowingly set a new school record in the 200 meters (24:86), yet she only finished eighth. It was the intense competition at the meet that pushed her to this higher level.

"It was my whole determination to stay up with them," she said.

Season bests and personal bests characterized the entire meet. Personal bests were set by junior Amanda Dudley in the mile (5:04.25) for sixth place and sophomore Shelley Mitchell in the 400 meters (57.57) for 12th place.

DiPerna (2:12.86) and Morrow (2:15.19) both had season bests in the 800 meters for third and fifth place, respectively. Both times qualified for the ECAC Championships.

Sophomore Kim Kessell put the shot 43'7" for second place.

Host University of Florida dominated the field of 20 teams to win with 111 points over Louisiana State University with 72 points, Florida State University with 67 points and Penn State with 53.

Coach Teri Jordan believes that Penn State could have placed second had they taken more people to fill in the weaker areas. The other half of the team went to the West Virginia Invitational which was also held on Sunday.

Assistant coach Jeri Daniels took 14 Lady Lions to Morgantown Sunday, and returned with many season bests.

"We're going in the right direction. It was a real good opportunity for our developing athletes, the stars of the future," she said.

Junior Leslee Martin ran 17:46.8 for second place and qualified for ECACs. Martin showed a lot of mental strength because she was basically running by herself in a very staggered field of runners. Junior Carol Davis was fifth in the 5,000 with 18:00 for a season best.

Freshman Heather Carrick jumped 5'4½" for fourth place. Daniels saw this as particularly impressive because she was not allowed to wear spikes on this track. Daniels explained that spikes provide the jumper with a more stable plant before the jump.

Other top performances were given by sophomore Jen Crouch in the shot put for fourth place with an ECAC qualifying mark of 43'1", and senior Becky Williams in the 3,000 meters with a season best (10:23.1) for fifth place.