The indoor season came to a close on a high note for the Penn State men's indoor track and field team.

Last week, head coach Harry Groves was named Region Coach of the Year.

It was the 21st coach-of-the-year recognition and 16th regional honor for Groves.

He has also been named coach of the year five times.

"It's a real big honor because we didn't have that good a Big Ten meet because [Penn State sprinter] Ernie [Terrell] got hurt," Groves said.

The Nittany Lions finished 15th in the National Power Rankings.

There were six Big Ten teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation.

Two weeks ago, the Lions won their sixth IC4A Indoor Track Title at the Reggie Lewis Track in Boston, outpacing Seton Hall 84 points to 54. Georgetown University came in third with 49 points.

"To be able to win that, you need to have that big a track game," Groves said.

The Lions won four events and had scorers in 12 of the 20 events.

Penn State senior J.T. Kuretich won the pentathlon competition with 3,888 points, while junior Chavous Nichols gathered first place in the triple jump with a leap of 53-0 Ã|. Nichols also finished third in the long jump with a mark of 23-9.

Other first-place finishers for the Lions at the meet included freshman Matt Lincoln, who was first in the 800 meters in a time of 1:50.1 and anchored the 4-by-800-meter relay team that placed first in its event (7:28.10).

That relay team consisted of Ian Hahn, Michael Jordan and Tim Walker.

Runners-up in the 4-by-400-relay were Terrell, Brian Derby, Jaret Campisi and Chris Lolagne in a school-record time of 3:09.43. Senior Hahn finished second in the mile with a time of 4:07.64.

The Lions were happy with the win as it made up for their performance at the Big Ten Championships, where they finished seventh.

They were going up against some tough regional teams and with so many teams competing at the meet, points were hard to come by.

"It was a different kind of meet but just as important," Groves said.

Overall, the Lions felt that the season was successful and, with young athletes such as Lincoln showing that they can compete against the big time athletes, they are looking forward to the outdoor season.

"I think it is a good way to look at things," Groves said. "It's exciting."