Racing to an eighth place finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals, the Penn State men's cross country team turned the tables after a disappointing finish at the Big Ten Championships. The strong finish will not put the team in the NCAA Nationals, but the Lions will be represented at the championship meet in Indiana.

As junior Dan Mazzocco crossed the finish line in the top 10 on Saturday, he was disappointed. He knew he ran a good race, but he didn't know if it was enough to put him in nationals and help him achieve his goal of being an All-American.

Assistant coach Artie Gilkes ran over to Mazzocco after the race and told him that he thought he made it. His teammates told him the same, but the decision was out of their hands. Mazzocco had to wait until seven o'clock last night to find out his fate. He kept checking the NCAA Web site, waiting and clicking. Then he got a call from head coach Harry Groves, telling him that he was in.

"I tried to picture my season ending in Indiana," Mazzocco said, referring to the championship site. "I really look forward to it, and I'm thankful for the opportunity.

"I hope I bring home coach another All-American."

Mazzocco and N.C. State's John Crews both received at-large bids. The duo will join two of the other top four sprinters who aren't members of the regional championship or runner-up teams -- since the athletes on those two schools get an automatic berth.

Mazzocco placed seventh at the regional meet. His time of 30:19.2 beat out American University sophomore Steve Hallinan by more than five seconds and earned him a top 10 finish at the regional meet for the second consecutive year.

Senior Chris Nirschel was the second Nittany Lion to cross the finish line at Lehigh with a time of 31:21.4, good for 38th place. Sophomore Oskar Nordenbring continued his scoring streak for the team, coming in 56th. Fellow sophomore Michael Syrnick and senior Sean Kennedy rounded out the scoring for the Lions.

Seniors Matt Lincoln and Ian McCann pushed and helped the Lions earn 256 points, tying them with host Lehigh for eighth place out of a 28-team field. Georgetown beat out American for the regional title. Princeton, LaSalle, Penn, Duquesne, Pittsburgh , Penn State, Lehigh and Villanova completed the top 10.

Senior Fleet Hower of Georgetown (30:03.8) won the regional meet roughly three seconds ahead of junior Sean Quigley, a runner from LaSalle.

Nirschel said his team was aiming for fifth place but feels it still ran well. He was also happy with his finish.

He ran the 10K 40 seconds faster than when the Lions ran their other 10K event at Lock Haven to open the season.

Making his move around one mile, Nirschel moved from 60th to 38th place by the end of the race.

After a disappointing performance at the Big Ten Championships, the regionals gave Nirschel confidence. As the team gets ready for the IC4A meet next weekend, Nirschel said he and the team can still run with anybody.

"I realized myself, I can run with pretty good runners, and as a team, we can go out and race against national caliber teams," Nirschel said.