In what amounted to a warm-up meet for the squad, the Penn State women's indoor track team took first place at Princeton on Saturday. The Nittany Lions (137 team points) defeated Princeton (104) and the University of Pennsylvania (75).

Although several of the Lions' top athletes did not compete, Penn State women's track and field coach Beth Alford-Sullivan maintained that record-breaking times were not a central focus.

"Provisional marks weren't really what we were aiming for," Alford-Sullivan said. "This was really more of a fun atmosphere ... and it's always tough to be motivated for that."

The Lions triumphed in the usual events they are accustomed to winning -- the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash, and long jump -- but the performances didn't come from the usual suspects. With juniors Connie Moore and Chi Chi Aduba resting for the weekend, seniors Laurie Fox and Genevieve Keen picked up the slack.

Fox took home first place in the 60-meter and 200-meter with times of 7.80 and 25.96, respectively.

"It was a great performance from [Laurie Fox]," Alford-Sullivan said.

Keen won the long jump and earned seven points for the Lions with a jump of 18-8 1/2, a full foot ahead of Princeton's Jennifer Byrd. Besides the more relaxed atmosphere, the tri-meet's format also differed from the norm. At the competition, only two athletes from each team were allowed to earn points in each event for the team. This alteration created a tighter competition on the scoreboard, though the races did not necessarily reflect this closeness.

"I think in general we were a little flat in performance, but we've been training hard this week," Alford-Sullivan said. "I think our kids really kept up nicely."

The meet gave the whole team a chance to compete and showed that the depth of the team is more than present. The nature of the competition allowed for more members of the team to refine their usual events, as well as practice in others.

"You just use meets like this to work on what you need to do," junior Danielle Bobo said. "You want everything at the Big Ten meet to be close to perfect."

In a surprise turn of events, Ja'nai O'Connor won the shot put with a mark of 48-11.75 while Deshaya Williams, typically the team's top thrower, took second place with a throw almost three feet less than her standard mark. However, Williams did earn the win in the 20-pound weight throw with a toss of 59 feet with the rest of the competition four feet behind. "The throwers did well," Williams said. "It was really more of a tune-up meet for the Big Ten. We know we have the ability as a team to perform and execute well."

The Lions are looking to step up to the next level with top opponents from the Big Ten. "We'll freshen up both physically and mentally for next week," Alford-Sullivan said. "Michigan and Ohio State should be our toughest competition."