The veteran men's cross country team needs no reminder of just how big the next few weeks are. They need no extra motivation.

It all starts Saturday at noon with the Pre National meet in Ames, Iowa. In a large field littered with teams headed for the NCAA championships, the Nittany Lion squad will look to prove themselves among some elite competition.

Finishing ahead of teams that may qualify for NCAA Championships through their regional competition will put Penn State in contention for an at-large bid should they not qualify at their own regionals.

The Nittany Lions are coming off a first-place finish at the Penn State Open and look to hit their stride in the next few weeks.

"We want to get to nationals," senior Chris McGinness said. "That's where it's at."

Through the first part of the season the squad has shown tremendous upside. The talent is there. All that is needed now is the mental edge.

"Personally, I'm tired of building," McGinness said. " We just need to go out and do it. We know we've got what it takes."

The team lengthened it's practice runs two weeks ago so that the runners can get accustomed to the National course which is 10k as opposed to the 5.2 mile Penn State Blue Course. The course at Ames, which is also the sight of the NCAA Championships, is new to the Penn State team.

"We've talked to other runners about the course and it seems fairly flat," senior Steve Walsh said. "It loops around a bit. Overall I think it will be a good course for us. We're well suited to run on it and we've been training for it."

With as many as 67 teams invited to the event the course figures to be a bit crowded. Even though only 40 teams are expected to run in the meet and there will be two races, the runners know they need to get ahead early and not get stuck in traffic.

"At Griak we didn't get out as fast as we need to," captain Bradd DelMuto said. "That's the key to this weekend."

Coach Harry Groves agreed.

"All we have to do is get out better and run together. Our splits have been solid. We can run with the teams at this meet," he said.

Veterans like McGinness, DelMuto, Walsh, James Brashears and grad student Jim Carney have carried the men's team.

They know they need to run better as a unit and they believe they can do it.

"Our plan is to get a bunch of guys out there and run as hard as we can as a group," said Walsh.

The members of the team will be out there pushing each other to get the win.

"The leadership on this team comes from everyone," McGinness said. "At the Griak I felt awful. I kept asking myself, 'Why am I running?' Then you see all your friends up there and that pushes you. You want to run for them. We have great chemistry and we communicate well.

"We feel that this is a race we can start to build our season around."