It was the third race of the season for the Penn State women's cross country team, but the team experienced a very familiar result.

Aided by an extra bye week and a home course advantage, the Nittany Lions finished second at the Penn State National Invitational on Saturday. The team finished with 64 points, 20 points behind meet winner Syracuse.

Going into the meet, the Lions voiced their desire to beat out Syracuse for the top spot. The Orange have been a nemesis of Penn State this year, as Syracuse has topped the Lions the last two meets, the first being the Spiked Shoe Invitational.

"It was a good challenge to set our sights on Syracuse. We wanted to close the gap," coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "Unfortunately, they showed up as a better team. But we're not disappointed."

And they shouldn't be. Especially not with the performances of freshmen Bridget Franek and Cheryl Spring, who finished first and sixth in scoring. The freshmen tandem again ruled the course and the competition.

"They are truly exciting. Both stepped into the college race and started their dominance. They are a great combination," Alford-Sullivan said.

And the strong runs by the team didn't just stop there. Even though over 20 ran for Penn State this meet, all but two improved upon their time from the last run on the course at the Spiked Shoe Invitational two weeks earlier.

And the improvement couldn't have come at a better time. While this past weekend was a challenge because of the presence of Syracuse, this meet pales in comparison to the Pre-National meet this Saturday.

This meet will show how much all the training and hard work would have been worth. While only 16 teams were present this past weekend, as many as 60 teams will be at Terra Haute, Ind., this weekend for Pre-Nationals. Because of so many teams competing, there will instead be two separate races, with each race having half of the participating schools.

This is the biggest meet thus far. Up to this point, the largest meet the youthful Lions have been a part of this season had 25 teams. That number should be expected to at least double for Saturday. Even the quality of teams will be at a higher level. Penn State will come across more teams that are at or even past the level of talent of Syracuse.

Even so, the Lions don't figure to be intimidated. The young team has come too far this year in just a short amount of time to lose focus at such an important part of the schedule.

"We want to run against the top of the top. We're ready to make an impact," Alford-Sullivan said.