Even the strongest weather can't bring this team down.

On a cloudy, rainy Saturday afternoon at the Nittany Lion Outdoor Track, the Penn State men's track and field team hosted an unscored meet that saw the Nittany Lions gain several first-place finishes.

The Nittany Lion Relays featured full teams from the University of Toronto and California University of Pennsylvania, as well as several individuals from other schools.

Senior captain Dorian Lowe knew the team had to adjust for the sloppy weather conditions and was well prepared.

"Weather always plays a part when it comes to outdoor meets," he said. "It's just out of your control and you really have to step it up in the rain."

The top performance of the day came from junior captain Brian Derby, who won both hurdle events with a time of 51.21 seconds in the 400 intermediate hurdles and 14.70 in the 110 high hurdles.

"I was just happy to have the wins even though I was a little sloppy," said Derby. "But the first priority is just to win"

The meet also saw several freshmen earn their first outdoor titles of their collegiate careers, including Jaret Campisi in the 400 meter dash, Tim Walker in the 800 meter run and Chris Foster in the 5,000 meters.

Derby said he was impressed with the performance of the younger Lions and emphasized the importance of their will to fight, not necessarily the need to win.

Other strong performances by the Nittany Lions included a career-best from Dave Bollinger in the pole vault as well as top finishes from John McGrorey in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, Brian Stumpf in the javelin and All-American Ryan Olkowski in the 200-meter dash.

The meet was mostly meant to prepare the team for the prestigious Penn Relays, set to run from April 25 to April 27 in Philadelphia.

Lowe, who won the hammer throw with a distance of 175-9, felt this meet was a good opportunity for the team to rest and gauge what needs to be done before this weekend.

"The Penn Relays is one of the biggest meets in the country and one of the biggest for us next to Big Tens," Lowe said.

"But this weekend's meet just gave us some down time and allowed for us to get to full strength."

Derby is looking at the mental aspect of going into such a high profile meet.

He feels the smaller meets, such as this past weekend's, are a good way to make sure the team's ultimate goal is the same and that everyone is prepared.

"Ultimately, you just have to have your head together," the Penn State captain said.