The Penn State Sailing Club is set to host the first ever Nittany Lion Open this Saturday.

The regatta will be held at Lake Glendale, approximately one hour away from the Penn State campus and will begin at 9 a.m.

Penn State will be one of seven schools competing in the new event. The other six are Drexel, Webb Institute, Salisbury State, Virginia, Delaware and Georgetown.

The club hopes that the regatta will become an annual event that will take place earlier in the semester in the upcoming years.

The regatta is going a long way toward bringing the club back to its once prominent standing at Penn State. About 20 years ago, the Sailing Club was one of the best sailing clubs in the nation.

"We had people who participated in the Olympics and we were nationally ranked," said commodore Adam Lauver (senior-biology).

Over the years the club has declined in membership and enthusiasm. It declined so much that it shut down completely for a couple of years in the late 1980s, Lauver said.

In 1995 the team was reorganized and has continued to grow in number and experience. The growth has started to pay off. Last semester, the team won a regatta over six other teams at the COHO Memorial, hosted by Webb Institute.

"Last year we won a regatta for the first time in a while," said race captain Mike Mclaughlin (graduate-engineering mechanics).

Mclaughlin is one of the many members of the club who are enthused about the upcoming regatta and what it means to the growth of the club.

"It's kind of a big step for us (Penn State)," he said. "It looks to be one of the best turnouts for a race like this."

The club includes about 40 members, and they are constantly working to continue its growth.

"We're always looking for new members," Lauver said.

They wish to recruit people who have the same enjoyment of sailing that they do -- people such as new member Jessica Bender (junior-accounting). It only took Bender her first experience sailing with her family in the Virgin Islands this summer to know that it was something she wanted to continue to do.

"I loved it," she said about her sailing experience. "I knew I'd spend the rest of my life sailing."

Mclaughlin shares in the enthusiasm Bender exudes.

"We're really out here to have fun," Mclaughlin said of the club.

The members agree that they are trying to make a name for themselves and to get as many members and support as they possibly can.

With the addition of the Nittany Lion Open, it seems as though the club is taking the right steps to accomplish their goal.