Running on familiar ground is not so familiar for the Penn State men's cross-country team this season.

Tomorrow, the Nittany Lions will host their lone home meet this season at the Penn State Blue Golf Course. The Lions are coming off an impressive 67-point victory at the Paul Short Invitational last Saturday in Lehigh. Many of the teams in the country this weekend will be running at the pre-nationals in Minnesota, meaning the field this weekend at the Invitational will not be very strong. William and Mary figures to be the Lions main threat tomorrow, as the Tribe were nationally ranked earlier in the season.

"This weekend we have William and Mary, we've got to beat them," Penn State men's cross-county coach Harry Groves said. "Cornell is not bad either, everyone else is lining up for the pre-national. We will have an idea of where we are when Bucknell comes out of that."

The Lions have run against the Tribe earlier this season in the Roy Griak Invitational which saw Penn State finish 23rd and William and Mary finish 14th.

"This meet is going to be pretty big," senior Gregg Davis said. "We are basically looking at it as a dual meet between us and William and Mary. We ran against them earlier at the Griak, but now we are in much better shape and I think we can run with them now and this will set the tone for the rest of the season."

The question is whether or not the Lions can string together another good performance this week here at home going into the Big Ten meet at Illinois in two weeks. The Lions were able to shed some time off their spread at the Paul Short Invitational last weekend, but Groves stresses that the Lions' runners especially their fifth, sixth and seventh runners must get closer to the pack for the Lions to be successful.

"I think with time that the guys will step up," senior Steve Walsh said. "I think that there is a bunch of young guys who have only run two races and this meet coming up I wouldn't be surprised if they came up. It matters where you are at the end and we are working up there, we have talented guys that can do it."

The Lions have the National Invitational and the Big Ten meet before they travel back to Lehigh in a month for the NCAA Regional and a shot to get back to the NCAA Championships.

"We have trained pretty hard in the early stages of the season," Davis said. "Finally we are getting in good shape for the late season, the way I have seen our practices go we are getting into gear."