This past Saturday, on a cold, windy day, the Penn State men's track and field team opened its 2003 outdoor season with the Jim Thorpe Invitational at the Nittany Lion Track.
It was a non-scored meet with athletes from Lehigh University, St. Francis and Penn State competing.
The meet was relatively low-key and teams did not bring out their full squads.
"I think it was a low-key meet," senior Chavous Nichols said.
"But you are supposed to compete no matter what."
In total, the Nittany Lions won 16 events.
First places for the Lions went to senior Dan Diaz in the shot put with a toss of 54-9 Ã| and in the hammer throw (179-07). Other first-place finishers for the Lions were Nichols in the high jump (6-9 Ã~), pole-vaulter Tyler Hershey (14-5 Ã|), junior Brian Stumpf in the javelin (215-10) as well as freshman Sean O'Connor in the long jump with a leap of 22-8 Ã}.
On the track side, some first-place finishers for the Lions were senior Steve Janci in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.29 and co-captain Brian Derby in the 400-meter hurdles (53.15).
Sophomores Chris Lolagne and Matt Lincoln each won their events, Lolgane in the 200-meters in a time of 21.81 and Lincoln in the 1,500-meters with a time of 3:59.68.
Despite the many first-place finishes, the Lions said that were unhappy with their performance.
"I think that a lot of guys have to make up their minds on what they want to focus on," Penn State men's track and field coach Harry Groves said.
The weather and the transition to outdoors might have been played a part in the Lions being disappointed with their performance.
"Some guys were into it and some guys let the weather affect them," Groves said.
This was a contrast to other teams competing at the meet.
"Overall, I am pretty happy with the way our kids performed today," said Lehigh track and field coach Matt Utesch.
One thing that the Lions pulled out from the meet was that come rain, snow or hail they are still going to run.
"No matter what the weather is you are going to run," Nichols said.
