Moceri added that he didn't know if coming so close to nationals would give him any extra motivation, but he would like to go out and run every race like it was the national meet.
The team will be without top runner, sophomore Dan Mazzocco.
Mazzocco will be competing in Terre Haute, Ind., at the NCAA Championships on Monday. It will be his second straight trip to the national race,
where he finished No. 80 last year.
"It was touch and go for a while [with Mazzocco]," Foster said. "It's good to see him come back to this level, and it will be really cool to see what he does in track this winter."
However, many other teams will be without some top finishers, including regional foe Penn, who will be sending its top two runners to the NCAAs.
The IC4A, which held its first races in 1873, was the first athletic group in the nation, and it is still going strong today with over 100 members.
The 5-mile course that the Lions will run has been the site of the race, and almost the identical course, since the event's inception.
"It's the same course my granddaddy ran, and the same as his granddaddy ran," Penn State men's cross country coach Harry Groves said of the race's long legacy.
LaSalle, who has been a tough regional competitor all season for the Lions, will be one of the "teams to beat" for Penn State. However, at this point of the season, the Lions runners feel they are up to the challenge.
"This is a stronger team than it was last year," Moceri said about last year's squad, which also graduated two runners. "We have more depth to work with this time."
The depth Moceri talked about includes a strong freshman class, which has had to contribute in every race this season. Most notable are freshmen Oskar Nordenbring, who has been a fixture as the fourth finisher for the Lions, as well as Brian Fuller and Edward Quinn, who have been among the top seven finishers all season. Although the last two spots on the roster have seemed to struggle throughout the season, they have preformed admirably for young runners.
"The young guys had to carry a lot of the load," Groves said. "They did a damn good job, but didn't get a lot of credit because you have to win all the time [to get it]."
The development of the young runners can help illustrate just how far the two seniors have come. In fact, the site of the IC4A race is almost symbolic for the runners.
"We were talking about it -- and a lot of us ran our last high school race in Van Cortland, at the Foot Locker Regional," Foster said. "It's kind of like coming full circle to have our last college race there too."
