It was a sluggish finish for the Penn State men's cross country team yesterday, as they hung on to the second-to-last spot, placing No.9 at the Big Ten Championship hosted by Indiana University.

Defending national champion, Wisconsin, dominated the 8K race finishing five runners in the top ten and scoring 27 points. Michigan followed in the No.2 spot, amassing 85 points.

Penn State avoided a complete loss by breaking past Purdue, the last team to finish with a score of 274 points.

Senior All-American Dan Mazzocco paved the way for the Nittany Lions, coming in No. 15 overall with a time of 24:56. Other runners scoring for Penn State included sophomore Tyler McCandless, finishing No.45, senior Chris Nirschel and junior Edward Quinn, finishing No. 48 and No.49 respectively, and junior Michael Syrnick, finishing No.63 to give Penn State a total of 207 points.

The individual winner of the meet was Minnesota sophomore Chris Rombough, with a time of 24:05. Minnesota finished No. 3 overall.

The Lions will look to improve upon this performance in two weeks when they compete in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meet at Lock Haven on November 11.