Senior Connie Moore faces the toughest competition of the year this weekend with a chip on her shoulder the size of Mount Nittany.

Moore has been promoting the year's marquee meet on campus all week, appearing yesterday in the HUB and, earlier in the week, at a Lady Lions basketball game.

She still feels though that the women's track team is getting no love.

"This is a big program, but people don't care because people don't know about us. They say there's nothing to talk about," Moore said. "Please. There's everything to talk about. This is an Olympic year. We deserve to be noticed. We deserve to be talked about. If Penn State comes out, we promise to put on a show."

University of Tennessee sprinters Dee Dee Trotter, Toyin Olupona and Tianna Madison, some of the most heralded sprinters in NCAA track and field, come in to challenge seven-time All-American Connie Moore in the 60-meter dash tonight and in the 200-meters tomorrow.

"Connie Moore is the queen of Penn State track and field, and she's going up against three of the top-five best sprinters in the country. If that's not going to get you fired up, nothing will," Penn State women's track assistant coach Jeff McAuley said. "This is one of the finest meets going on in one of the finest facilities in the country. We want people in this dance."

The two-day event features the most intense matchups the Nittany Lions will face all season.

Capping off the night's festivities, two-time Olympic gold medalist Jearl Miles-Clark will be in attendance signing autographs.

Miles-Clark won gold in the 4x400-meters in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic games and is a four-time world champion.

-- By Tim Ford