The competition is fierce and the stakes are high. The Penn State men's cross country team has been consistent this season, earning second place at its first three meets, but heading into the fourth meet, the team will face its first real challenge of the season. The Nittany Lions will be racing against the top teams in the Big Ten and regional conferences in the Pre-National Invitational at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Terre Haute, Ind.
Junior Michael Syrnick said this is probably the biggest meet of the season aside from Nationals. The Big Ten is the best conference in the nation for cross country, so the Lions are going to Indiana with high expectations and 86 teams to beat.
Head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan says this is the focal point for the season and she hopes her team will rise to the occasion.
"We're looking to get into some great competition," she said. "We want to challenge ourselves to see where we stand in a much larger race in terms of size and quality."
This meet will gear the Lions up for the Big Ten Conference Championship, which will be held at the end of month.
Penn State will receive points for beating every nationally qualifying team. The more teams it beats, the higher its chances will be for earning a spot at the National Championships.
"We could get one of the last couple of places and still do really well because the competition is so good at this meet," Syrnick said.
The runners are working to keep their spreads small and their legs strong to avoid slipping in the ranks amongst other runners.
"A lot of teams get worse by this time in the season, we want to get better and look to beat some regional teams," he said.
The team will travel to Indiana today, giving it time to adjust to the new settings and rest up before the weekend.
This is the team's first big meet and also the first it will travel to by airplane this season, but the runners are experienced travelers and hope to use that mode of transportation, and the distance away from home, to their advantage this weekend at the meet.
"It's always hard going far away," Syrnick said. "It's exciting though."
