The men's track team began its odyssey through the Great Outdoors this weekend.

And the first stop on the young but promising outdoor tour came in Tar Heel Country (Chapel Hill, N.C.), where temperatures hit 81 degrees for Saturday's scoring meet.

Penn State, Yale, Virginia Tech and host UNC compiled an excellent early-season field. North Carolina won with 89½ points; the Lions finished second with 61½ points, followed by third-place Yale with 29½ and Virginia Tech with 13½.

"The weather was good," Coach Harry Groves said. "But it was North Carolina who had a lot of good people in good shape. They had a lot of talented athletes who performed at a high level of competition."

In the four-team meet, UNC earned the majority of its points in the short speed events while Penn State gathered its points in the distance and field events.

Placing high in the distance and field events has been the heart of the Lions' team.

Shot putter Phil Caraher began the outdoor season exactly the same way he began the indoor -- slowly. His throw of 59½ feet, good enough for first place and five points, is exactly where Caraher said he should be at this point in time.

"I have a lot more strength at this point of the (outdoor) season than I did before the indoor," Caraher said. "I'm starting to lift the weights again so I'll be around 60-62 feet for the big meets later in the season."

But even with Caraher's 59-foot throw, he still earned five points for the team, which the tri-captain said is the bottom line in a scoring meet.

"Definitely. You want to get the points for the team because it's a true team effort," he said.

Other first-place finishers in the field events were: Ricardo Hall who leapt 49'10" in the triple jump, and Wes Waninger who hurled the javelin 196 feet. The javelin, along with the discus, steeple chase and the 4x100 relay are events competed only outdoors.

The first-place distance winners featured Aidan O'Reilly in the 1,500 at 3:52.51, and Jerry Robinson who won the Intermediate 400 in 53.42.

"We were in good enough shape and we had some good performances," Groves said.

Second-place finishers included Antonio Davis, who turned in his best outdoor long jump ever with a leap of 23'10", Brian Kelly, second in the 400 at 49.37, and David Crow who ran the 5,000 meters in 14.53.59. In that event, Mark Wimmer placed third and O'Reilly was fourth.

Kevin Cripanuk earned three points for Penn State with a second-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles, and Caraher threw the discus 152 feet.

Absent from the meet were Doug Walter, out of town for a job interview, and Jon Strange, who is out indefinitely with apendicitis.

Next weekend, the Lions travel to the Naval Academy in Annapolis to take on Navy.

"They are a quality team with a lot of bodies. They will be a tough outfit to beat," Groves said.