Even with using the Sykes-Sabock Challenge as training for the Big Ten meet in two weeks, the men's track and field team turned in some of the strongest performances of the indoor season on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions finished second in the team standings with 80 points. Big Ten rival Ohio State won the team title with 107 points.

The team element of the Sykes-Sabock Challenge provided the Lions with some additional pressure.

"You get points on the line and performances on the line, people really step up," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We have a lot of things moving forward. It just means more when you have the team riding on you as well."

However, even with that mindset, Penn State still used the last home meet until late April as a way to prepare for the most important part of the season -- Big Tens.

"We didn't put everyone in everything that we could have to win this meet," Alford-Sullivan said. "We really want to prep them up for two weeks from now. We did do a good job within the competition to do as well as we did."

One of those standout performances was turned in by high jumper Ryan Fritz, who cleared a personal best height of 7 feet, 2.5 inches.

His mark is the currently the highest in the Big Ten this season.

Fritz failed at a school record attempt of 7-4.0, but still easily garnered a first place in the meet.

"That was an outstanding performance by him," Alford-Sullivan said. "Last week and this week he has really put the jump together. He's executing very well, very confident and clean over those early bars. I'm really pleased to see him jump at the school record, even though he didn't get it. He took a lot of good attempts at it. He'll get that before too long."

Another event that provided
the crowd and athletes with just
as much entertainment as Fritz's record attempt was the 4 x 400-meter relay.

The foursome of Caleb Hood, Mike Cadau, Mark Miller, and Mike O'Donnell ran a tough race finishing two- hundredths of a second behind Ohio State.

Their time of three minutes, 14.99 seconds was the fastest for Penn State this season.

"It was tough, I thought I had him," O'Donnell said. "I had three guys that did a tremendous job getting me the baton in a decent place. We're going to see [Ohio State] in two weeks, I just stuck right on his shoulder and tried to give it all."

O'Donnell ran anchor for the Lions and clocked in for a fast 47.8 second split.

The race, which was difficult to determine who won by the naked eye, created a rivalry between the Penn State and Ohio State 4 x 400 squads.

"O'Donnell just gritted there and came up on Ohio State and gave them a good scare," Alford-Sullivan said. "I liked the way it ended because it leaves it in two weeks for bragging rights."