Surrounded by stars of their sport, the Penn State women's track and field team didn't lose focus at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. Instead, with Marion Jones in the background, the Nittany Lions used the three-day weekend to prepare for the future.

"With so much going on in our sport at the time, and the atmosphere was great," Penn State head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We enjoyed being there, and it was just about being ready to compete."

The Mt. SAC relays are "where the world's best athletes compete," according to its slogan. Last weekend, beating Olympians like Jones was a plus for Penn State athletes such as freshman Shana Cox in the 400-meter, but it was more important for each athlete to carry herself through the meet and gain some drive into the latter stages of the season.

Jones actually had a very public, sub-par performance at the meet, which was somewhat disappointing for the Penn State team and the rest of the audience. It would have been more exciting to compare Cox's outstanding performance to Jones if it wasn't for Jones lackluster performance against the other competitors time-wise.

But the fact that Cox has really started to improve her performance meet by meet is the more important thing. Cox's performance in the 400, 53.28 seconds, was a regional qualifying mark.

"Shana definitely executed her race, and is really looking strong," Alford-Sullivan said. "It was a little disappointing, but I'm sure Marion just had a bad weekend and I hope she gets back where she wants to be later in the outdoor season."

Another thing that Penn State hoped to get out of the Mt. SAC Relays was exposure.

Much of the competition was actually high school athletes and collegiate prospects. Being on the West Coast gave the Lions a shot at ensuring success into the future.

"It gives us a lot of good exposure to the West Coast scene," Alford-Sullivan said. "We already have some key competitors from that area."

One of those athletes is freshman Gayle Hunter, who is from Riverside, Calif., and has been an all-around standout performer since the indoor season. There is a hope that athletes like Hunter and the team's performance will give a good impression to athletes in that area of the country.

Hunter is one of the many Penn State athletes who has already qualified in her event, as she has already qualified in the heptathlon and in a couple of relay events.

Going into the Mt. SAC Relays, the goal was to come out with even more qualifiers so that the team would be set in terms of representation at Nationals.

Junior Christen Clemson qualified regionally in the discus, and junior Diana Bruch did the same in the javelin throw.

Freshman Dominique Blake also qualified in the 800-meters. The meet was a considerable success.

"It's starting to fill out really well, and some people are getting good results," Alford-Sullivan said.

Still, the major victory for the Lions wasn't as much when junior Sara Shoaff and sophomore Kamilah Salaam beat out Great Britain's Joice Maduaka in the 200-meters.

The performance that counted the most for Alford-Sullivan was seeing Shoaff and Salaam beat out Michigan senior sprints star Sierra Hauser-Price in the same race.

"Our focus is the Big Ten and going into next month we hope to continue this momentum," Alford-Sullivan said.