In most cases, a team would like to come out of the gates quickly, getting off to a great start. Unfortunately for the Penn State men's cross country team, success in its first meet may have meant holding on to that great start.

The host Nittany Lions finished fifth at Saturday's Spiked Shoe Invitational, dropping four spots from last year's victory. With a total of 131 points from their top five finishers, the Lions came in just behind No. 4 St. Joseph's, which collected 111 points. Princeton won the race, finishing with 63 points and placing two runners in the top five. LaSalle and Columbia finished second and third, respectively.

"We looked at the total time from this year and last year, and we were only like 8 seconds slower for the team," senior Chris Foster said. "I think basically the other teams were in shape to run a great race, when we weren't -- but we're getting there. We just weren't ready to win."

The Lions seemed very strong early, with five runners tightly grouped just behind the leader at the 1-mile mark. However, as the race wore on, Princeton's group, which had settled near the middle of the pack, began making its move, while the Lions began to spread apart and started fading behind the leaders.

"We went out a little too fast and got in trouble," Penn State men's cross country coach Harry Groves said. "[The fast start] definitely had a profound effect on where we were. We have to mend our fences, come back and try to get control of the first mile and then be able to move."

Groves also noted that teams must be careful of taking too fast of a pace early in the season, citing the sub 5-minute first mile the leaders ran, which resulted in the runners slowing drastically over the next four.

The individual winner of the Spiked Shoe was Widener's Macharia Yout, who was also last year's Div. III individual champion. The top finisher for the Lions was Foster, who finished 14th with a time of 26:22.85. Last year's winner, and Penn State's No. 1 runner, Dan Mazzocco, couldn't seem to find the stride had in last year's event, finishing third for the Lions and No. 19 overall. His time of 26:34 was not too far off of his winning time of 26:02, but the top five runners on Saturday had times under the 26-minute mark, leading a strong field.

The invitational also included a 6k women's event as well as five high school races, showing the popularity of running the courses at Happy Valley. The high number of high school runners also gives Penn State coaches a chance to scout future talent, as well as giving the young runners a first hand look at Penn State's campus and facilities.

"It takes long time and effort, but it's well worth it -- the value that the kids get out of it," Groves said. "It made me feel a lot better because of the response of those guys."

Although the team posted two personal bests and finished fifth, the performance can be viewed as a letdown after a winning last year's invitational and a strong summer.

"Not like we thought we were just going to come out and win -- it was kind of like we thought we were the only team that did a great workout over the summer." Foster said.