It's like that quiz you take in the morning, when later that night you have a seemingly insurmountable final. The quiz matters and you want to do your best, but it's just not quite that crucial.

The Penn State men's indoor track team will take that quiz this weekend, one week before the Big Ten Championships, and it will not take it lightly.

Beginning this afternoon at 4:30 in the Multi-Sport Facility, and continuing tomorrow morning at 9, the Lions will host 13 other teams from around the East Coast and Midwest in the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup.

Two of the visiting teams, Michigan and Virginia Tech, have been ranked in the trackwire.com top 10 at one point this season.

At practice Thursday afternoon, Penn State head coach Harry Groves recognized the talents of both schools, noting that they, along with Kent State, Cornell and his own team, are to be watched closely.

Michigan has a couple standouts, most notably nationally ranked distance runner Mike Woods, who has hit the 3,000-meter NCAA automatic mark two weeks in a row entering this weekend and has a 3:57 mile under his belt this year.

The Hokies will look to their runners to carry them, especially the fantastic pair of Jordan Price and Matt Renninger in the 60-meter dash.

Penn State, a week after its home win over Connecticut and Princeton, has the standout athletes to win multiple events and is looking to steal a few points wherever it can.

Senior and junior throwing partners Scott Vernon and Steve Meyers have established themselves as weekly contenders in the weight throw and shot put. Vernon, who has met the NCAA provisional mark multiple times already this year, is a near guarantee to score.

Ryan Fritz and Tyler Fedeli will try to best each other in the high jump, after finishing first and second respectively last weekend, including an NCAA provisional qualifying mark and new personal best from the true freshman Fritz.

Watch for a few hot Nittany Lion runners. Sprinter Alex Langan is always a threat to win the 60 and 200-meter dashes, and the 500-meter twosome of Caleb Hood and Ernie Terrell finished one-two in the meet last weekend.

Groves and his staff said last weekend that they expect strong performances today and tomorrow from the guys who stepped up for the team last weekend.

Distance man Chris Nirschel, who ran what Groves called a "hellacious race" in the 3,000-meters last weekend, will look to repeat his strong performance running against Woods.

Groves was sure to keep his team in condition to perform this weekend. The Lions who will compete today worked out lightly at practice yesterday, running outside and spending a bit of time indoors primarily stretching out and doing some upper body work.

Team members who do not compete until tomorrow will spend this afternoon at the Multi-Sport Facility doing their own light workouts and providing vocal support in what should be a packed building.