The Penn State men's track and field team felt a string of bad luck led to its 42 points and seventh-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Illinois this past weekend.

The overall winner was Wisconsin, which had a late surge on the second day to edge out Minnesota 133-1/2 to 131-1/2. Third place went to Purdue with 123 points.

"We performed really well," Penn State men's track and field coach Harry Groves said. "... A lot of adverse things happened."

One of those was the loss of sophomore Ernie Terrell, who had an inflamed tendon and could only compete in the short races such as the 60-meter dash. It was a big blow for the Nittany Lions, as Terrell has been their most consistent performer in the track events this season.

Groves said that some things didn't go as planned for the Lions, leading to their final placing. It also seemed that for the first time this season, Penn State's youth worked against it.

"A few guys could have used a little more savvy in their races," Groves said.

Despite this, the Lions showed some promise that they could be a team to watch out for in the future in one of the toughest conferences in the nation.

"The highlight of the day was probably sophomore Matt Lincoln, who ran a great race," Groves said.

Lincoln ran a 1:49.97 in the 800-meter race, which was an NCAA provisional qualifier, to place second in the event. Also securing second place was junior Chavous Nichols, with a leap of 51-9 in the triple jump, also an NCAA provisional qualifier.

Nichols was leading until the last round, when Indiana's Aarik Wilson's leap of 52-8 put him in first place. It was the first time this season that Nichols did not place first in this event.

Another scorer for the Lions in the meet was senior Dan Diaz, who was sixth in the 35-pound weight throw with a mark of 62 1-1/4. On the first day of the meet, Diaz grabbed seventh place in the shot put.

Another scorer for Penn State on the first day was pole vaulter Nick Felgey, who had a sixth-place finish in his event (16-0 3/4).

On the track side, the injured Terrell finished eighth in the 60-meter dash with one of his slowest times of the season, 7.01 seconds. Sophomore Jaret Campisi, competing in a strong field, was fourth in the 400-meter dash in a time of 48.19 seconds. The Lions then finished up the meet strong with a third-place finish in the 4-by-400-meter relays (3:15.07).

Although they did not place as well as they expected, the Lions were happy that they were still able to have some high scorers against some of the toughest competition in the nation. They also said that there was a lot they could learn from the meet.

"I hope that some of the freshmen learned what a big time track meet is and the effort they need to put in at this level to be succesful," Groves said.