Last Saturday's Nittany Lion Invatational proved to be a blockbuster of a meet for the men's track team. Not only did six athletes qualify for IC4A competition, but several more turned in impressive early season performances.

But Coach Harry Groves said many more athletes will have to raise their level of competition if they are to defeat The Big Red of Cornell, whom the Lions battle in a dual meet at 1 p.m. tomorrow in Ithaca, N.Y.

And one thing can be etched in stone. Cornell will be ready to compete against Penn State tomorrow, and for more reasons than one.

Coach Lou Duesing, in his first year at Cornell, was a former assistant coach here under Groves; tomorrow marks the first meeting between the two coaches in track and field competition. Cornell's assistant coach Mark Bilyk also was a former assistant for Groves.

"I'm really, really looking forward to this meet," Duesing said. "Penn State is so fortunate to have a coach that is respected nationally and even worldwide like Harry. Every time I attend a meet where Harry is the coach I learn something new. I think it will be a very good meet."

Groves is looking forward to it as well.

"Nobody enjoys beating you like the people who used to work with you," he said. "Lou and I like to go at it so we'll have to be on our toes."

Tomorrow's dual meet with the Lions will be the first real competition that The Big Red has seen so far this season.

Cornell represents the Heptagonal Conference which includes the Ivy League schools plus Army and Navy. They have a big squad with a lot of depth in many events.

Their top-notch sprinters, who have already qualified for the individual IC4As, are captain Mike Ealy and Jeff Brown. Cornell also has a good 35-pound hammer thrower in Jamie Fahie, who will have a difficult bout against the Lions' All-American Phil Caraher. Caraher qualified for IC4As last week.

But Duesing's biggest concern lies in the middle-distance to long distance area of competition, which is one of Penn State's stronger areas.

"I don't know if we will be able to run with them. We are young and relatively inexperienced," Duesing said.

Running the mile for the Lions are Doug Walter, who ran a 4:14.14 last week, a time good enough to qualify him for IC4As and tri-captain Mike Crescenzi. Aidan O'Reilly will run the 1000 meters and Penn State's two-mile relay team of Crescenzi, Joe Stegbauer, Phil Mellott and Walter will also be difficult to beat.

Penn State's jumpers, Antonio Davis and Ricardo Hall, both IC4A qualifiers, should have a decisive advantage over Cornell's jumpers. Both will enter the long and triple jumps.

Even though Groves saw a lot of positive things about last week's invitational, he also noted the negative.

"We missed some steps last week and in a scoring meet you can't do that." Groves said.