To win the Big Ten women's indoor track and field championship this weekend, Penn State will need top performances from every single one of its athletes.

If the team hopes to take home the title of the two-day meet starting tomorrow at Armory Track on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign, it will need a complete effort from each member of the team, not just those who can win their events.

The scoring format of the meet will reward overall team strength, as points are awarded to the top eight finishers in each of the 18 events. The Lions will need to fight for every position to overcome the rest of the Big Ten.

"You have to keep reminding yourself: 'This seventh place is going to make a difference,' " junior sprinter and member of the 4 x 400-meter relay team, Dominique Blake, said. "Even if it's a point or two, it's counting toward a championship and you could definitely need that point."

Standing in their way will be Michigan, the reigning back-to-back champions; the favorites, Minnesota; and the host, Illinois.

Penn State head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan believes any of those four teams, including the Lions, are capable of winning the title, but it will come down to which team can earn points from top to bottom.

"When it's so tight up front, meaning the top-four teams are fairly well balanced in the amount of points they can score, the difference is your depth and scraping those extra points off the back end," Alford-Sullivan said. "Minnesota looks on paper to be the kind of team that can do that better than the rest of us."

Minnesota's ability to place in the top eight in all events makes the Gophers favorites to win their first conference title.

"It's Minnesota's meet to lose," Alford-Sullivan said. "They are the defending outdoor champions and they do have a ton of depth".

Penn State's best hopes for individual Big Ten championships come from Shana Cox in the 400-meter and 200-meter dash events, as well as the 4 x 400-meter relay squad, which has consistently run top times in the nation this season.

Events in which Penn State is not favored to earn points will be key to the Lions' ability to put together a championship-quality meet. The Big Ten is historically strong in distance races, such as this weekend's one mile, 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter races.

"When you look at the Penn State women right now, our strength is certainly not showing in the distances," Alford-Sullivan said. "It takes some time to develop them and we have a young group there. We know that, and our strengths are in the sprints."

If Penn State can balance top finishes in the sprints with scores from the throwing and distance events, the team can overcome the mental tension of a championship meet and take home it's second indoor championship.

"When it comes to high-tension meets like Big Tens, there's always that mental factor which I think plays in a little bit more than the physical factor," Cox said. "I'm excited. It's going to be a fun meet."