Entering this year's schedule the women's indoor track team motto was, "Climbing the ladder." Now after winning its first meet of the season on Saturday, the Nittany Lions have gained the first rung on that ladder to success.

Eight different schools including Penn State participated in the U.S. Coaches Association Series Indoor Track Meet this weekend at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track Facility. The squads competed in 19 different running and field events, with the Lions edging out Seton Hall for first place.

On a day when two Lions would set facility records, the real story was the gritty competition exhibited by the young team throughout the meet. The contest was close from start to finish, and with the overall lead see-sawing back and forth, the team needed every point it struggled for.

"People rose to the occasion. Eighth place is still one point, and we were leaving everything out there to get as many points as possible," junior captain Laurie Fox said. "It was really good to see the freshman stepping up, and the seniors we already have with the experience leading the way."

Out of the 19 events, the team only won four, but was consistently earning points in each one. In all events, the athlete finishing first earns her squad 10 points, with eight points awarded to the second place finisher, six going to third, and one less point delegated to each declining spot until the eighth place finisher who earns one.

Penn State wrapped up the meet with 162.5 points total, out gaining second place Seton Hall (147.5), Cornell (114), Villanova (113), Syracuse (69), LaSalle (48), St. Joseph's (22) and Howard(16).

Head coach, Beth Alford-Sullivan echoed Fox's appreciation of her team's hard work. Despite having to plug in some athletes in events they aren't accustomed to, Alford-Sullivan felt the team did a great job coming off the winter break to work hard and stay motivated. However, she did say that the team showed a lack of sharpness that will be addressed before the team's next meet on Saturday at Kent State.

The squad got a big lift and a big lead from the day's opening field event, the 20-pound weight throw. Freshman Kate Johnston won the event with a throw of 16.43 meters and sophomore Na'Dai O'Connor took fourth place to give the Lions 15 points to build on. It was just the beginning of a big day for O'Connor, who later on would set the facility record in the shot put with a toss of 15.39 meters.

"I didn't even know what the record was at the meet. I didn't know I had actually broken it until the team meeting at the end," O'Connor said.

Other notable performances were turned in by sophomore Maureen Thomas who set the Penn State record in the 3000-meter run and Connie Moore who won the 60-meter dash and automatically qualified for an NCAA berth with a time of 7.1 seconds.

"We are going into this season like we don't have anything to lose and everything to prove," senior captain Jess Kern said.

"I think that as long as we bring the competitiveness that we brought to this meet to our others this year, we have nowhere to go but up."