The sport stars of track and field always seem to be the track stars. You can see it on the international scene, when the cameras always seem to zoom away from a field athlete about to break a record toward track stars such as U.S. Olympic Champions Marion Jones and Maurice Greene.

At Penn State, it's the faces of track stars Ernie Terrell and co-captain Brian Derby that fans recognize.

Field stars such as senior Chavous Nichols are often forgotten in the trailblazing smoke left by the speedsters. Yet, Nichols is the key ingredient for the success of this team.

Nichols, whose hometown is Wichita, Kan., went to high school at Fountain Ft. Carson, Colo., and has shown this season that his performance will dictate how the team will perform this season. Never one to seek attention off the field, Nichols has put on a string of dominating performances so far this season to send ripples in the Big Ten.

Two weeks ago at the USTCA meet at Penn State, in his most impressive performance of the season, he broke the Penn State indoor triple-jump record with a leap of 53-0 Ã~. The mark was one inch shy of an NCAA qualifying mark but good enough for a provisional mark. It was also way ahead of his previous best of 51-3. At the same meet he took third place in the long jump.

Then came the Toronto Track Classic last weekend in Toronto, where Nichols won both the triple and long jump. In the long jump, he needed his final jump to secure first place.

One reason for Nichols' early success this season might have been the fact that he has made a checklist of things he would like to achieve. One of them was checked off after he broke Penn State's indoor triple jump record. He also has sights set on helping the team win a Big Ten Championship and becoming an All-American. Nichols does not seem to possess the ideal body type of an athlete that the public expects. He is more gangly and thin than he is muscular. The only time he comes into the public's eye during meets is when he gestures to the crowd to clap their hands before he attempts his jump.

He's not one to pace furiously up and down the track or listen to music at the highest volume, common to many sports stars today. In fact when he broke the record, he simply pumped his fist in the air as a sign of exhilaration.

"I'm laid-back," Nichols said. "I have that midwest, laid-back mentality. When someone tells me that I can't do it, it makes me work harder to do it."

Looking at him, you wouldn't expect Nichols to be an athlete. Yet over the years he has continually improved and as a result the wins keep piling up. Nichols could boast of his successes, but he feels that the team should come before anything else. He has always been one to sacrifice himself for the good of the team, even when he has reason not to. "When I got injured my sophomore year, I didn't think that, 'Oh my God, everything is over,' " Nichols said. "I was happy because I would have one more year with the team."

An elder statesman this season, Nichols will be called on to be leader on a youthful team, something he has never done before.

"I look forward to it," Nichols said. "When my time comes to leave, it is the young guys that will have to step up."

Nichols has overachieved both academically and on the sports fields. He has made great strides from the days when his third-grade teacher told him that all he could be was a trash man, to today when he has become someone who represents what hard work and determination can achieve.

"I think that Penn State has helped me reach my potential," Nichols said. "Never in a million years did I expect to be at Penn State."

What he has yet to realize is that he is a star in everyone's eyes.