BETHLEHEM -- As the sun began to break over the mountains and spill into Lehigh Valley, 28 men's cross country teams prepared to defend themselves.

With a warning signal and a gun shot, the NCAA Championships began at 11 a.m. yesterday.

The pack of men broke from the starting line like they were being chased by a wildfire set in the surrounding corn fields.

With Arkansas leading the way, the rest of the men grouped behind them and took off over the hill.

"It was just such a fast race," Coach Harry Groves said.

Juniors Bob Hamer and All-American Jake Bartholomy led the Lions to a 14th place finish. The Lions scored 311 points, only five out of the top 10. In the first three miles, Hamer stayed near the front of the pack with Bartholomy at his heels.

"I wanted to leave every ounce of energy out on the course," Hamer said.

While those two were contending with the pack, senior co-captain Jon Pritchard moved up after the first mile. He admits it cost him later.

"If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing," Pritchard said. "It's worth trying."

The effects of the rapid pace were showing around the three mile mark. The once comforting proximity of all the runners had grown into an intimidating distance between first and last. The Lions were more concerned with their first and fifth men.

"The gap between three, four, five was too great (a distance) from first and second," Groves said about Penn State's positioning.

The distance between positions grew larger when Bartholomy came on strong at the end of the race.

"Around the four or five mile mark, I moved up a little bit," he said.

While moving up, Bartholomy passed Hamer who was struggling with the long distance. Hamer hasn't had a full year of training in past years because of injuries.

"I'm just not strong enough," he said. "I went out and ran the best race I possibly could."

Meanwhile, Arkansas was on its way to setting a NCAA record low score of 31 points. With all five scorers in the top 25, Arkansas annihilated second place Brigham Young, which scored 153.

After Arkansas locked first place, Bartholomy sprinted across the finish line in 29th place with a time of 30 minutes and 32 seconds.

"The last 500 meters, I passed six guys," he said.

Even though the Lions did not finish in the top 10, they still consider the season a success.

"I think it's great. We weren't even in the meet last year," Hamer said. "Like I always say, 'It all comes out in the wash and today was laundry day.' "