The Penn State women's cross country team is all packed up and ready for the three-and-a-half hour joy ride to Bethlehem for the Paul Short Invitational, which starts begin at 10:45 a.m. tomorrow at Lehigh University.

This meet is significantly different from the previous ones because only 12 Nittany Lions will be in attendance.

This is a very critical meet for the team because its performance this weekend will be a true indicator of what to expect at the Big Ten Championships, as well as the NCAA Regional competition.

"This meet is special because the competition is a lot bigger," junior Shannon Van Dyke said. "Part of the postseason depends on the regular season."

The past three meets that the Lions have competed in have been fairly low-key.

The team has been referring to these competitions as chances to "get our feet wet."

In anticipation of this weekend's meet, the runners are echoing a different sound.

"This is our first real big meet," captain and fifth-year senior Kate Curran said. "We can't lose focus ... if you fall asleep during the race, 20 people will pass you."

In order to stay in compliance with NCAA rules, the team can only take a travel-size squad of 12 members. Penn State women's cross country coach Beth Alford-Sullivan has picked the runners according to finishing times from the previous races.

The meet tomorrow will consist of two separate races. At the collegiate invitational, which will begin at 10:45 a.m., the Lions are going to run their top seven runners. The race at noon will be run by the remaining five competitors.

Alford-Sullivan has said that this is the point in the season when the team is coming together and stepping up. The team is trying to stay connected and cultivate camaraderie, running together and helping each other out during the race.

Alford-Sullivan has been telling the team to focus on closing time gaps between the runners. At last weekend's meet, the time spread between the top five runners was only 1:15.

"We're a really tight pack," Curran said. "We try to stay together or we help each other as we pass."

The Lions use a buddy system strategy to pass runners from other schools. It helps to have more than one Penn State runner -- they can draft and push off each other to work hard and get ahead together.

This weekend's course is the same one that is used for NCAA Regionals, so this is a good chance for the team to get comfortable running on it.

The course is hilly, which makes the race even more challenging.

With last weekend's uphill finish however, the Lions have proved that they can go the distance, whether there are hills or no hills.