Facing its stiffest competition this year, the men's indoor track team finished seventh at the Big Ten Championships, held Friday and Saturday at Ann Arbor, Michigan. The team placed in eight events with Antonio Davis and Brian Kelley leading the way.

Although they finished lower than they did last year, the Lions left Ann Arbor 38 points, seven more than last year.

"At the Big Ten Championships, you can end up winning or losing and still have a good day," Coach Harry Groves said. "We didn't have a particularly bad day, but we didn't have a great one."

Kelley cooled the rest of the competition in the pentathalon Friday, scoring 3,967 points. Leading his closest opponent by 40 points after four of the five events, he felt comfortable heading into the 1,000-meter run.

"I just keyed on the guy who was in second place," he said. "I figured he had to beat me by four or five seconds to win but I ended up winning the heat anyway."

Davis meanwhile was taking care of business in the long jump. Running back and forth between qualifiers for the 55-meter dash and the long jump final, his leap Friday of 24-9 placed him fifth, picking up valuable points for Penn State.

Saturday, after two less-than-impressive efforts in the triple jump, and dealing with pain in his knees, Davis had had enough. He jumped 51-11 on his last attempt in the triple jump, which was good enough to place him second.

"I was fed up," he said. "You just gotta draw the line somewhere. I had to be mentally tough on that last jump."

Although the Lions finished seventh, Groves knew going into the meet that it wouldn't be easy.

"I told somebody yesterday that if I thought we did lousy, I'd be sitting here crying," he said. "We didn't do that.

"The Big Tens is a highly contested track meet. When people go to the meet, they pull out all the stops. And there's always somebody standing there with a faster gunfighter in town."