Since the 1890s, the Penn Relays have been part of collegiate track and field competition.

Today, the Penn State men's track and field team will be in Philadelphia at Franklin Field to take part in a meet steeped in tradition.

"When we win something, it's big stuff," Penn State men' s track and field coach Harry Groves said. "We won some individual stuff recently, but we haven't won a championship relay since '86. But that was the best in the world when we did it."

The Penn Relays is the longest uninterrupted collegiate track meet in the country. More athletes have run in the meet than in any other meet in the world.

Earlier in the week, before the regular meet, a few Nittany Lions made the trip to participate in the Penn Relays Distance Classic.

The Lions had athletes in the 5,000-meter and 20,000-meter races.

Freshman Dan Deichert took first out of 90 runners in the 5K with a time of 16:45.

Sophomore Dorian McDonald had the best place finish for Lions in the 20K when he came in fourth (1:10.24), with Scott Munro coming right behind him in fifth place (1:10.50).

Ian McCann came in sixth (1:11.19), Kyle Berseth came in eighth (1:13.16), Steve Holmes came in ninth (1:13.36) and Patrick Murphy came in 10th (1:14.01).

"We use the race as a builder to try to give guys a little more strength and endurance for the Big Ten 10K," Groves said.

Today's meet will include the 3,000 steeplechase, 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races.

Chris Foster qualified to run in the steeplechase, Chris Nirschel is running in the 5,000-meters and Joel Moceri and Josh Loren are running in the 10,000-meters.

The regular part of the meet will be tomorrow and Saturday with the 4x100 relay, 4x200 relay, 4x400 relay, and sprint medley. Groves still has to decide who he wants in the sprint medley.

"We'll probably go in a college division, which is out of the championship, cause [Matt] Lincoln has a sore foot," Groves said. "It's great when you win in the college division, but it isn't the big one."

Groves said the meet was the biggest and most watched meet of the season.

"It's certainly not grammar school," Groves said.