If winning the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup trophy proves to be the predictor of the Big Ten champion for the second straight year, Penn State's women's track team can start sewing together that next championship banner.

And maybe the Nittany Lions' dismantling of Michigan this weekend could convince the rest of the nation that this team is legit.

"We have the potential to be a national threat," Penn State coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "As we move through this conference meet, we will start to talk about the national-caliber kids on our team. With this squad, we look very good at NCAA's."

In Penn State's 121.5-110 victory against Michigan, the Lions were able to once again take down a Big Ten rival in the Challenge Cup. Last year, Penn State beat rival Ohio State in the same tournament. The Lions then went on to win their first Big Ten indoor title.

"This meet leading up to the Big Ten Championship, it provides us with a home atmosphere and it provides us with a team score where we really rallied together as a team, which is what you got to do at a championship," Alford-Sullivan said.

The Lions rallied around their young runners. One of the more influential performances in Penn State's victory didn't even count toward the score. Freshman Gayle Hunter started the competition by breaking a 20-year-old school record in the pentathlon.

Hunter's total of 4,059 points is the highest mark in the Big Ten, and is an automatic qualifying mark for this year's national championships for the pentathlon in March.

Then Penn State's 4x400 relay team of freshmen Dominique Blake, Shana Cox, Hunter and sophomore Kamilah Salaam set another school record, finishing in 3:40.07. This cut down the record they set at the Penn State National Open two weeks ago.

The race was close, with Eastern Michigan trailing by less then a couple of feet. Such a slim lead did faze Hunter, though.

"The whole time I was just like, 'Wow, I can't let her past me,' so I just ran," Hunter said.

The performance becomes even more outstanding by considering the circumstances of each runner. Cox was one of the many Penn State athletes suffering from illness this week. Hunter is still recovering from a knee injury and is not yet 100 percent. Salaam was suffering from back spasms after her 200-meter race before the relay event. Blake is still just a freshman like Cox and Hunter. Despite the problems, everyone, besides Cox, ran her best split.

"Every time we run, it's never where everyone is at 100 percent," Salaam said. "Shana is sick, and she was four seconds off her fastest split, so if we're ever all healthy at once, it's over."

Cox continued to have a big weekend despite her conditions. She placed first in both the 200- and 400-meters. In the 200, Penn State took first place with Cox's time of 23.77 seconds, second place with Salaam at 23.85, and fourth with junior Sara Shoaff coming in at 24.33. These finishes totaled 23 points for the Lions. But this success was expected, because sprints are this teams strong suit.

"We've been running great, so we were expecting points from them, but really they competed with composure and ran very fast," Alford-Sullivan said.