The Penn State men's cross-country team will host the Harry Groves Spike Shoe Invitational at 10:30 a.m tomorrow at the Penn State Blue Course. The event has been renamed in honor of Harry Groves, who retired as head coach of the men's team last year.

The event has more than 20 teams participating, but the Nittany Lions are only worried about Syracuse. Columbia was the other tough competitor, but head coach Willy Wood announced last week that his team would not enter in the race because of schedule changes.

The Lions' home course advantage could lead them to victory for the first time this season.

"It's our home course so we should represent," junior Michael Syrnick said. "A lot of people are coming to watch us."

Junior Edward Quinn says the competition at home is different from what the team experienced at Lock Haven.

"It's harder to group it up," he said. "The biggest challenge is to stay cool and keep a level head with a lot more runners and better teams in the race."

The team prefers running at home because it creates an environment more conducive to winning.

"I'm comfortable at home, my parents come down and there are more fans," Quinn said. "There is less stress with where you sleep, what you eat, setting alarms. It just makes things a lot calmer and you have one main focus -- it's doing well on the race."

Everyone on the team has a little bit of nervousness, but the Lions seem very poised and eager to run at home.

"We're just trying to win and have a good showing, so that's what everyone's looking forward to right now," Quinn said. "We're taking it one meet at a time."

The focus of this meet will be keeping the spreads smaller. Spreads refer to the number of seconds between the first and last runners.

Syrnick says working together, like the team did last week, will make the overall performance better.

"When you run alongside your teammates, you pace each other," he said. "That's what happens to me a lot, I'll be in a race and all of a sudden no one will be around me. You can't get a rhythm."

The Lions ran at the Blue Course earlier this week to prepare for the meet, but they're taking it slow to avoid burning out.

The only problem this weekend might be Syrnick's lack of nervousness.

"I really haven't gotten nervous since 8th grade, which is not good because if you're not nervous it means you're not ready," he said. "I'm not nervous, I'm confident."

Syrnick says he feels much better about this season than last season.

"I don't see us going anywhere but up and that boosts the morale," he said. "We're only gonna get faster every meet."