The Penn State men's cross-country team defeated 23 teams Saturday at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational. The team finished strong, but without enough steam to overcome Syracuse, who took the No. 1 spot, scoring 50 points.

Penn State finished the 5.2k race in second place with 87 points. All-American senior Dan Mazzocco led the Nittany Lions with an outstanding race, finishing just seven seconds after the first-place runner with a time of 25:54 and second overall.

"This was a very nice race for him," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "He had an excellent finish."

It was his second consecutive race finishing in second place.

Penn State placed three more runners in the top 20.

Sophomore Tyler McCandless, senior Christopher Nirschel and junior Edward Quinn finished Nos. 13, 14 and 15, respectively.

Junior Michael Syrnick said the team had a good meet overall but the loss to Syracuse could have been prevented.

"I thought we could've won, but we started out slow," he said.

"We couldn't run as packed because there were too many people."

The runners seemed nervous, legs jittering at the starting line, but they had to stay calm to run a better race.

"If you get pumped up, you go too fast," Syrnick said. "The race is not run in the first mile, it's in the last five."

Alford-Sullivan said her front four runners ran tremendously well and the team had a nice race.

"The depth is coming," she said. "It's still early in the season."

The team stayed strong despite losing a runner before the team's first meet. Dennis O'Connor was running in Sunset Park when a bicycle accidentally clipped him, resulting in a broken collarbone. O'Connor had surgery last Monday but the team is not sure if he will return this season.

Syrnick said O'Connor was doing really well and the team had to work harder to make up for the void he left in the lineup.

"I have to step up my game because we don't have him anymore," he said.