More than 100 athletes in single events -- that was what the Penn State men's track and field team had to deal with in the first road meet of the season.

Traveling to New York City to take part in the highly competitive New Balance Collegiate Invitational this past weekend wasn't the only challenge the team faced. Trying to perform well in a field with some of the nation's elite programs, and a lot of them, was another hurdle.

Even with successful meets prior to the New Balance Invitational this season, the quality of the competition forced the Lions to focus more on the individual end of the spectrum instead of a team score.

"We didn't go in hoping to make an impact in that [final outcome] sense," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We competed at a very lower level in the sense that we didn't double-up people because we had gone so well the weekend before and this was more of a train-through, get some good competition, get on the road, and have the meet serve some other purposes."

Judging how the team would react after the high level attained at last weekend's Penn State National was one of those purposes -- and the athletes didn't disappoint.

"They responded really well," Alford-Sullivan said. "You're there for a long day, great competition but really long competition. They took advantage of the opportunity."

Among all the hours spent in New York, the Penn State men's track team turned in some solid efforts from some of its consistently strong competitors.

Lions' standout 800-meter runner Mark Miller fought through a tough race to clock in at 1 minutes, 52 seconds -- good enough to finish ninth at the meet.

"It was a very rough and tumble race," Alford-Sullivan said. "There were 15 guys on the line, that's a lot of guys to run in the 800 on an indoor track. There were two spills and Mark was able to survive both of those. He's been running very consistently. His fitness is looking great."

Another routinely strong performer for the Lions who notched another quality meet was high jumper Ryan Fritz, who took second in the event with a height of 7 feet, 1 inch. With the jump, Fritz now sits inside the NCAA top 10 this season.

Throwers Dane Miller and Steve Myers led the way for Penn State in the shot put. Miller finished in 10th while Myers placed in 12th.

"They are a great one-two punch and will be very competitive in the Big Ten when we get there," Alford-Sullivan said.

While most of the events this past weekend displayed how far the team is progressing in the young season, none might be more indicative of that than the triple jump. Penn State jumper Jay Pagana set a personal record with a distance of 48-feet, 10 inches, while his teammate Clarence Smith recorded another strong distance after jumping his personal best last weekend.

"This is a good example of how this competition really helped people," Alford-Sullivan said. "If you go in and you're jumping at your best and you finish in the top-12 spots in a large competition it really gives you some great feedback as to where you are in the middle of a season."

While upcoming meets might not be as large or as competitive as the one the team competed in this past weekend, the Lions will look to continue the trend of training hard at practice and setting personal records on the weekends.

"Between last weekend at home and this weekend on the road we've had a majority of the team, possibly all the way through the team, having personal records being set," Alford-Sullivan said. "It is a great testimony to their performances right now."