The first one is always special.

Women's cross country coach Beth Alford-Sullivan earned her first coaching victory at Penn State on Saturday at the Paul Short Invitational. This win also marks the first team victory since 1996.

The Nittany Lions were very emotional when they found out they won the meet. After an hour of waiting, the scores were finally posted with Penn State defeating Mid-Atlantic Regional rival Bucknell, 109-123. Coach Alford-Sullivan was under the impression that Bucknell was much closer than they were to the Lions.

"We were ecstatic," freshman Chelsea Lenge said. "When we saw the 'P' go up, we started going crazy. We all starting screaming, 'That's us, we won.' We weren't expecting it at all."

The Lions defeated 38 teams, including many Mid-Atlantic Regional teams. Moravian finished third, behind the Lions and Bucknell, with 135 points. Rhode Island (152) and No. 11 Georgetown rounded out the top five with a 170 points.

Erin Silvering of Rhode Island was the individual winner of the race in a time of 21:08.

Penn State freshman Michele Wale paced the Lions and finished second overall in a time of 21:15. Wale was the top finisher for the Lions for third consecutive race.

"She was outstanding," coach Alford-Sullivan said. "She looked great. After the race she felt great and was incredibly strong throughout the entire race. She ran like a champion."

Lenge was the next to finish for Penn State and finished 14th overall. She covered the 6,000 meters in 21:45 seconds. The third, fourth and fifth runners for the Lions all finished within of five seconds of one another. Sophomore Beth Sharkey crossed the line in 22:11 and placed 29th overall. Freshmen Maureen Thomas and Molly Landreth, earned 32nd and 36th place overall, respectively. Thomas ran 22:13 and Landreth finished in 22:16.

"I feel that all our runners as a collective group, ran very well," Alford-Sullivan said. "It was a total team effort that we put together. On average we cut 45 seconds off our times, from a week ago."

The Lions took a giant step forward this weekend, and earned respect for the regional. The Lions finally knocked off Bucknell for the first time under Alford-Sullivan.

"We came into the weekend with one goal: Beat Bucknell," Wale said. "It was good to eliminate them. We were all fired up, and now we are moving on, with the intent of knocking off others."

Penn State returns to action on Saturday at home for the first time all season. The Lions host the National Invitational at the Blue and White Golf course. Penn State plans for the momentum from this weekend's victory, the first one in four years, to carry over to next weekend and put together back to back victories.

"I'm sure the momentum from this weekend will carry over. Plus the excitement of finally getting the chance to run at home in front of everyone, will also get them pumped," Alford- Sullivan said.