It's now or never.

Senior Captain Steve Walsh talked about it at the beginning of the season.

"We have to take the program to the level it should be," Walsh said at media day in August. "The goal for the season is to do as well as last year and better, to make nationals."

For that goal to be fulfilled, the Nittany Lions will need to run well at the Regional meet this Saturday at Lehigh. The top two teams on Saturday will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.

Last season, the Lions finished fourth at the meet, which all but cost them the chance to go to the NCAA Championships. The Lions were denied an at-large berth, despite a good amount of at-large points.

"The regional is very important," Penn State men's cross country coach Harry Groves said.

"They (the team) would like to go to the national championship this year, but we have hardly any at-large points this year so we are going to need to outright qualify and not worry about the politics."

The Lions have run over this course earlier in the year, finishing first at the Paul Short Invitational. The difference is that the runners will be making a jump in distance from 8,000 meters in that race to 10,000 meters on Saturday.

"8K to 10K makes a difference to everybody" Groves said. "Having been on the course for most of it is going to help somewhat. It's a fast course, not a real demon of a course, but being there before should help us a lot"

The Lions by no stretch of the imagination are the favorites coming into Lehigh. The Lions are ranked fourth in the region, behind Villanova, Georgetown and LaSalle.

Villanova is nationally ranked seventh and is the prohibitive choice to win the race. Groves sees Penn State, Georgetown, LaSalle and Princeton close to the same level, all chasing Villanova.

"I mean you never know, you get to the regional and you don't know," Villanova men's cross country coach Marcus O' Sullivan said.

"On paper we have a decent team, we are healthy and the boys are looking good."

The Lions top four as of late has been solid, but all year the fifth man has been a main concern. Walsh is coming off of a 14th place finish in the Big Ten Championships and senior John McGrorey has continued to improve with a 19th place finish in the Big Ten Championships.

Sophomore Scott Munro has been solid all year, edging senior Gregg Davis at the Big Ten Championships. Junior Josh Loren rounds out the Lions top five.

"Most of the kids involved in it (Regional race) last year aren't in it this year," Groves said. "Its gonna be determined by what you put forth on Saturday."