The Penn State women's cross country team has all the excitement, confidence, and talent required to be a championship team. Unfortunately, this weekend at the 2003 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional II Championships, several other teams also had all those elements.

Many of the Penn State runners turned in stellar performances, however not all had their best competitions. Overall Penn State women's cross country coach Beth Alford-Sullivan waspleased.

"You just have to throw everything in there and see how it shakes out," Alford-Sullivan said. "Not everything was firing."

Georgetown ended up winning the event with 56 points. The Hoyas were followed by Princeton (78), Villanova (98), and Penn State (104). Alford-Sullivan feels that the teams in the region this year are much stronger than last season. If and when these teams compete against each other again, possibly on November 24th at the NCAA National Championships, it will be a fight to the finish. Molly Landreth was the major contributor for Penn State this weekend, turning in a fourth place finish in a time of 20:09. Last year at the Regional Championships, Landreth finished 20th, more evidence of her incredible season.

"We in all honesty just had some remarkable performances," Alford-Sullivan said. "For Molly, it was an outstanding way to run."

Alford-Sullivan also applauded juniors Michelle Wale and Chelsea Lenge who both turned in standout performances. Wale came in second for the Lions and 18th overall, while Lenge rounded out the top twenty.

"They were both due," Alford-Sullivan said. "I knew [Wale] was going to have a great day and [Lenge] really pulled it together."

The team fell a little short of its first or second place goal. By taking fourth place, the squad now must wait until 5 p.m. today to see if it will get an at-large bid and still be able to compete at the NCAA National Championships. Alford-Sullivan and the rest of the team remain confident that they will be competing.

"We have beat a lot of nationally ranked teams," Lenge said. "So that puts us in a very good spot and we think that will carry us through."

So for now the cross country team has to wait to see what decision is made by the committee before it knows if it will be making a return trip to Nationals or not. There is no sign of doubt.

"We are very thankful that we have next week to try it out again," Alford-Sullivan said. "We really are a dangerous team and just have to get all of our engines firing at the same time."