When the Penn State men's cross country team hosted the Spiked Shoe Invitational on Sept. 11, the overconfident Nittany Lions took an early lead that they could not maintain, falling to a fifth-place team finish.

This was not the case on Saturday when the Lions hosted the Penn State National Invitational, finishing third as a team thanks to three strong performances. Senior Chris Foster and Dan Mazzocco were in the front pack with Foster just seconds behind the leader with a time of 4:48 as he crossed the one-mile marker in second place. Mazzocco kept pace in third with senior Joel Moceri comfortably behind them.

Instead of fading from the leaders like at the Spiked Shoe, Mazzocco and Foster were able to stay in the top 10 throughout the 5.2-mile race.

At the 3.5-mile marker, Foster and Mazzocco were in third and fourth, respectively.

As the race entered the final straightaway, Mazzocco, now in third, closed in on second-place Pat McAdie and passed him, earning a second-place finish. Foster finished 17 seconds later with a time of 25:44 in seventh.

Senior Joel Moceri rounded out Penn State's top three with a time of 26 minutes.

The trio catapulted the Nittany Lions to a third-place finish for the afternoon behind American University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Perhaps more important was the performance by Mazzocco, who was disappointed by his performance in the Lions' last race at Notre Dame.

His first-place finish for Penn State marked the first time this year that he led the team, finally beating out Foster, who'd been the top Lion all season while setting a personal record on the course.

But the biggest thing may be that the Lions kept together up front.

"It was more of a confidence boost that Foster and I were neck and neck for the first four miles," Mazzocco said.

"That's a huge thing," Mazzocco said of staying together. "All the best teams in the country run like that and we're not that far off."

This may be a sign that Mazzocco is returning to form following a season last fall that saw him go to the NCAA National Invitational.

His slow start was a byproduct of an Achilles' tendon injury that forced him to redshirt the spring track season.

"I'm back to where I need to be," Mazzocco said.

Despite three runners in the top 15 in a field of more than 300 runners, Penn State needs to strengthen the team as a whole.

The gap between Moceri's 12th-place finish and the next Lion was 44 runners, with Oskar Nordenbring finishing 56th. Next Ed Quinn, a freshman, finished 81st.

"We can't spread out like that and succeed," Penn State men's cross country Harry Groves said.

Groves said that Moceri and Nordenbring will have to cut 20 seconds from their times to be able to catch teams like American and Penn.

"We're the team that can improve the most," Mazzocco said.