The women's cross country team bounced into Monday's practice with a sense of accomplishment and boosted confidence from last weekend's meet.

The team had a stellar performance at Lock Haven where the ladies took first place. Top finishers included sophomore Nicki Bohnsack who was third with a time of 22:13.15, freshman Janelle Young who was fourth at 22:15.56 and Sonja Hinish in fifth with a time of 22:30.12. The team finished with a total of 31 points to take the win.

The Penn State Nittany Lions will host their first home meet of the season, the 2005 Spiked Shoe Invitational, beginning at 10 tomorrow morning on the Blue-White Golf Courses.

"We're excited to run at home and have the support," sophomore Nicki Bohnsack said.

Many of the runners' families will be in town to watch the race, giving the team a feeling of anxiousness and excitement.

The Lock Haven meet highlighted many talents and proved that the young members of the team could handle being under pressure.

"It's not surprising to see the freshmen doing well," Hinish said. "They are looking good at practice and have been working hard since they got here."

Since freshmen and sophomore runners comprise the majority of the team, their performances are going to be critical in this weekend's meet. The freshmen face an especially difficult competition because the course is tougher than last weekend's fairly flat path.

"Freshmen haven't run here before; it's completely different from the last one," Hinish said. "It's challenging; there are lots of hills. It starts mostly downhill, but the uphill finish is tough."

There are no Big Ten teams in attendance at this weekend's meet, but this is better for the team because it can start out with easier competitions and build gradually with each race.

"It's encouraging to see so many of us [running] close together," sophomore Sonja Hinish said. "It makes us so much more competitive within our own team, which makes us better."

Hinish said that having a particularly good or bad day often affects the order of a race. "If you have a good day, you can go up a spot, or if it's bad, you can go down," Hinish said.

The team may be seen running in packs because it intimidates the opponents. If teammates run past one another, they drop words of encouragement as they move ahead. The team sticks together in practice, so they feel a sense of comfort when they have each other on the course.

This meet will determine the young runners' strengths and weaknesses and give them a chance to compete with more experienced teammates.

The scores of past meets as well as this weekend's meet will help determine which runners the Nittany Lions will take to compete at the Paul Shore Invitational next weekend.