There is no sun and there are no beaches in sight for this group of athletes, and they could not be happier about it.

This past weekend the Penn State men and women's club ski teams earned trips to nationals by finishing third and fourth, respectively, at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships held at Blue Mountain.

The team will be traveling to Brundage Mountain in Idaho next week for a four-day competition beginning on Wednesday.

"I'm ecstatic. It's a huge accomplishment," Penn State coach Jim Polinchok said. "We'll be one of 18 schools, out of 200 intercollegiate teams."

The Penn State teams will be up against the top teams in the country. Some are teams that receive full scholarships for their athletes and plenty of university funding. For a club team, which pays from its own pocket, competing, and possibly beating, varsity- and scholarship-level teams at the national level is a big success.

Overcoming some incredible talent this past weekend, the teams were able to secure their national bid.

"You never know what they're going to bring," Polinchok said.

Penn State skier Ashley Connors agreed.

"The competition is incredible," she said.

The Naval Academy and the New York schools brought some of the toughest opponents. And for one squad, seeing Navy at Regionals was a good thing.

"The men have been battling with Navy all year but were able to secure their national bid," Polinchok said.

Connors, who finished eighth last weekend, is returning this year from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus.

As the team's No. 1 skier, Connors' presence has been a big help for Penn State.

"She's our No. 1 girl," Polinchok said. "It's good to have her in good health."

The team has been battling injuries all season, but that has not stopped Penn State from accomplishing its goal.

"We've worked so hard," Connors said. "This was not a walk in the park."

And many athletes contributed to that hard work, which yielded the trip west this spring.

Freshman Cody Powell came to Regionals as an alternate and, after an injury to a senior skier, Powell was able to step in to fill the void.

In the competition, five skiers race through the course. The top three times count toward the team's score and are averaged equally for an overall team time. The lowest combined time wins.

Powell brought in one of the top-three times in the giant slalom event.

The stars of the weekend, however, were the 50 or so members of the Penn State ski team who came out to cheer on the 10 members competing.

"When other teams were going down the hill it was kind of quiet, but when we came down the hill, it was so loud," Connors said.

This is one of the first years that both the men's and women's sides will go to Nationals. Two years ago, the women made the trip and last year the men went.

"We always strive for Nationals," Connors said. She added that the trip would be that much better because both squads would be competing.

Polinchok hopes the team will place in the top 10.