The 2001 Ravens defense had it, so did last year's Yankees, even though they didn't win the 2001 World Series. They oozed something that all teams wished they had.

Well, for the Penn State men's track and field team, the one word that describes these teams is teamwork.

The Lions will definitely need teamwork in order to be successful at the Penn State National Open, when they go up against 35 universities with about 400 athletes performing. The Open will last for two days with the Friday meet starting at 1:30 p.m. and the Saturday meet begins at 9:00 a.m.

Notable programs such as Georgetown, as well as local rivals Pittsburgh, University of Pennsylvania and Temple University will be competing at this event.

Last year the Open was quite a success for the team as junior Guy Rose broke the school record for the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.82 seconds.

Also, high jumper Ryan Olkowski met the NCAA provisional mark with an effort of 7 feet, 1 inch. On the last day of the meet the team had a couple of first place finishes.

Last week, the team finished second out of three teams against Big Ten competition at the Indiana Tri-Meet in Indiana.

After last week, the team pondered whether they could live up to last season's performance. Captain Dorian Lowe said that it was yet to be determined as it is still early in the season.

"We are a team," Lowe said, "and we are going to have to work as a team to get to the top."