Before Saturday's Penn State Relays, Penn State women's track coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said the strength of her team was its balance, and the Nittany Lions did nothing to contradict that.

At the meet, Penn State athletes performed well and set two school records.

While the Lions' goal for the relays was to simply shake off the rust, they still placed high in many events.

Sophomore Kamilah Salaam took third in the 60-meter hurdles, second in the 60-meter dash, and helped Penn State's 4x200-meter relay team -- which included Brooke Robinson, Sara Shoaff and Shana Cox -- clock in at 1:37.92, breaking the previous school record of 1:38.05 set by last year's team.

The rest of the sprints also went well for Penn State, as the team placed three other sprinters in the 60-meter dash with Salaam.

Shoaff placed third, Robinson placed fifth, and Monique Walker placed 10th.

In the jumps side of the competition, a young group contributed a solid effort with sophomore pole-vaulter Kelly Nesbit placing second in the even with a personal best of 11-feet 11.75-inches. Freshman Gayle Hunter turned in a second-place long-jump finish of 19 feet, 1.25 inches. Sophomore Kara Dickman placed fifth in the long jump with a jump of 17 feet 5.5 inches.

Freshman Christina Sgriccia jumped for 36 feet 7 inches, good for fourth in the triple jump. Dickman (36 feet 5.5 inches) took sixth.

For the distance events, Penn State ran its athletes in a series of off events, but freshman Sonja Hinish still placed 12th in the 3,000-meter run.

"We're happy with what our younger athletes have done," Alford-Sullivan said.

"Their anticipation for competition was good."

Penn State dominated the throwing competitions, with junior Naval Academy transfer Jennifer Leatherman placing first in the shot put (47 feet 7.75-inches_. Leatherman also placed first in the 20-pound weight throw with a school-record throw of 65 feet 3.25 inches.

Leatherman was pleased with her record-breaking effort but still sees room for improvement in the shot put, where she threw 47 feet 7.75 inches.

"I would have liked to throw 50 [feet]," Leatherman said. "It's in me. I can throw 50. It'll come out."

Fellow thrower and senior captain Kate Johnston placed second in the weight throw with a throw of 58 feet, 5.75 inches, and sophomore Helen Higgins placed seventh (53-feet 8.50-inches).

"We've always had a good throwing corp since I've been here," Alford-Sullivan said.

"Dayna Holston, the throws coach, does a great job, and our athletes always step up."

While the Penn State Relays were just a chance to remove some kinks, Alford-Sullivan will use this competition and next weekend's U.S. Coaches Association meet as a springboard for more success at the Penn State National Open, held here Jan. 29 and 30.

"This is a good starting point. We'll look at what happened in each of these performances, how we performed, what went well, what didn't, what kinks we need to work out," Alford-Sullivan said.