The Penn State men's track team competed against a record 2,200 athletes and several Nittany Lions distinguished themselves from the masses this weekend.

Athletes from 70 colleges and universities, and 63 clubs comprised the field at Wallace Wade Stadium for the 2004 Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C.

Penn State men's track and field coach Harry Groves said he was surprised by how many sections there were in all the events.

"We had to deal with the fact that the events were open and that a lot of the athletes were out of school and at the top of their games," Groves said.

The Lions, however, responded well as seven players had NCAA regional qualifying marks.

Senior Chavous Nichols came in second place in the triple jump with a mark of 50-feet, 10 3/4-inches.

Chris Foster came in second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:06.54.

Aaron Ross came in third in the hammer with a throw of 182-feet, 6 inches.

The performances were all good enough to qualify each athlete for regionals.

Penn State's presence was especially felt in the javelin throw.

"We finished 2-3-4 and that's rare to have that many players from the same team finish high in a meet like this with this number of athletes," Groves said.

Seniors Matt Moyer and Brian Stumpf finished in second and third place, respectively, with throws of 207-feet, 9-inches and 205-feet, 2-inches -- scores good enough for entrance into regionals.

Brett Kershner finished fourth with a strong effort of 192-feet, 5-inches.

Rounding out the qualifiers for the Lions were Ernie Terrell, who finished in second place in the 200-meters with a time of 21.16 seconds.

Jaret Campisi grabbed a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles as he posted a time of 52.41 seconds in the event.

Groves was also impressed with Tyler Fedeli's effort of 6-feet, 8 1/4-inches in the high jump, which won him a seventh-place finish, and Joel Moceri's time of 31:02.18 in the 10,000-meters -- a 30-second improvement from his earlier times in the season.

Groves said he had to make an important decision as to which athletes he wanted to position on the various relay teams competing at the event.

"We kept ours intact," Groves said yesterday afternoon. "Because we didn't want to have to run guys four or five times."

The 4 x 100-meter relay team of Alex Langan, Diamond Woolford, Campisi and Terrell came in fourth place 40.86 seconds.

"In a meet with this number of players it's good just to get a place finish," Groves said.