Doug Walter will be there. Aidan O'Reilly will be there. And so will Ricardo Hall, Antonio Davis and Phil Caraher. Even graduate C.J. Hunter will be there. The place is Johnson City, Tenn. and the meet is the USAir Invitational.

The reason that these five Penn State track athletes are traveling to East Tennessee State is to see how they measure against the nation's best.

And simply put, these five athletes have been invited to compete against some of the better track athletes that the nation has to offer in a two-day competition that promises to be one of the early season's better meets.

"This meet is a major invitational with top flight competition," Coach Harry Groves said earlier in the week. "Many athletes use this meet to reach their NCAA qualifying standards."

And one thing can be guaranteed. People from more than 100 schools that will be represented at the meet will be trying to do just that.

Walter will be running the mile race, O'Reilly will run in the 3000-meter (PSU graduate Ken Frazier will also compete) and Hall the triple jump competition. Hall set a Penn State record last week with a jump of 51'5¾". Davis will also compete in the event.

But one of the more interesting scenarios will be the shot put competition, where Caraher will compete in a field that includes last year's NCAA Champion and former Lion great, Hunter.

"I'm curious to see what he throws," said Caraher, who placed fourth in the NCAAs last year. Caraher has been drilling and lifting weights hard all week. But he says the mental preparation is just as important.

"Right now I'm throwing around a 61 and in order to win I'll have to throw around a 64-66," Caraher said. "I'll be competing against a lot of club throwers who are older."

Besides the invitational events, the meet also holds open events and Penn State will have competitors in 10 events.

Jerry Robinson, Kevin Cripanuk and Hall will run the 55-meter hurdles; Davis the 55-meter dash; Michael Adams and Kevin Kelly the 200-meter run; Jon Strange and Brian Kelley in the 400-meter run; Joe Stegbauer and Bob Hamer in the 800-meter run; Mike Crescenzi and Phil Mellott in the mile; Bob Belfanti and Craig Waltz in the high jump; Mason Ternay and Mark Algeri in the pole vault; Stegbauer, O'Reilly, Hamer and Walter in the two-mile relay; and Kelley, Cripanuk, Robinson and Strange in the mile relay.