Chris Foster waited until the last moment, but it was worth it.

Foster, a senior member of the Penn State men's cross country team, won the first cross country race of his collegiate career in his final race with the Nittany Lions.

With Foster taking first, the Lions placed fourth at the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) Championships held last Saturday in Van Cortland, N.Y., riding the success of their two seniors.

"I was kind of in shock," Foster said of his first-place finish. "I've never won anything in college -- it was a weird feeling, just too hard to describe."

Foster, who won the 5-mile race with a time of 24:55, was closely followed across the finish line by the team's other top senior, Joel Moceri. The senior from Reading finished his final race in sixth place (25:08), giving the Lions two top-10 finishers in a major race for the first time this season.

The Lions once again relied heavily on strong finishes from their top runners, this time without NCAA-qualifier Dan Mazzocco, but also needed to turn to young runners to hold their own.

Junior Matt Lincoln was the third finisher for the Lions (No. 35, 25:50), but freshmen Oskar Nordenbring and Edward Quinn stepped up as they did all year, finishing fourth and fifth for the team.

"The whole team has been making progress," Foster said. "[The freshmen] did everything that could have been expected of them."

It was fitting that Foster mentioned the team's progress.

His and Moceri's progress allowed the Lions to develop into team leaders in their final year -- and also finish their cross country careers with great races.

"After the race an assistant coach told me, 'You won the IC4As and no one can take that from you,' " Foster said.

"It was great for both of us, we ironed out all the problems at the end."