The Penn State men's outdoor track and field team competed in the Nittany Lion Relays at home over the weekend and showed that it is as prepared as it can be for the upcoming Penn Relays.

During the meet, the Nittany Lions won 14 events and also added two more NCAA Regional Qualifying marks to make a total of 17 this season.

It was a good performance in a non-scored meet for the Lions, despite the fact that they were using the meet as preparation for the Penn Relays, which start next week.

"All the teams, particularly Cornell and Penn State, are using this as a pre-Penn Relays practice meet," Penn State men's track and field coach Harry Groves said.

The Lions came into the meet knowing that despite their coach calling it a "practice" meet, they had to stay focused on the job at hand.

The two NCAA Regional marks on the day came from sophomore Matt Lincoln in the 800-meter race with a time of 1:15.09, while junior Aaron Ross set the a mark in the hammer throw with a toss 183-3.

In the field events, Penn State dominated by winning seven out of eight. Chavous Nichols won the long jump with a leap of 23-3 Ã| and posted another regional qualifying mark in the triple jump (51-4 Ã}). Senior Dan Diaz continued the double-win streak when he won the shot put with a throw of 55-9 Ã| and the discus (167-1), which were both qualifying marks.

The javelin throwers proved once more that they were a formidable force when they took the top three spots in their events while also setting qualifying marks. They were led by junior Brian Stumpf, who had a throw of 221-7, good enough for first place. Second was junior Matt Moyer (206-2), while third place went to freshman Kyle Wintersteen (204-9).

But the Nittany Lions did not stop there as they also had some good performances on the trackside.

Sophomore Chris Lolagne won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.76 seconds and Lions co-captain Steve Janci pulled out a first-place finish in the 400-meter with a time of 48.94 seconds. Coming off a tough second-place finish in the 3,000 meters at the USTCA Series Meet two weeks ago, senior Ian Hahn this time grabbed first place in the 1,500-meter with a time of 3:54.04. The 4-by-100-meter team continued its impressive winning streak, when it claimed first place in 41.69 seconds, while the 4-by-400-meter team won its race with a time of 3:16.36.

Overall the Nittany Lions said they were happy with the way things went at the meet. "I think it is a pretty good meet to get geared up for," Nichols said. "I think that this kind of meet helps because it's good to compete."

Another reason the Nittany Lions were satisfied with the meet was that it gave people who won't be competing in the Penn Relays a chance to compete before the layoff.