For the Penn State men's track and field team, the Big Ten championships in Bloomington, Ind. this past weekend was like one big relay event.

It seemed like every Nittany Lion was using other teammates' performances to propel themselves to better times and farther distances.

Clarence Smith was one who took advantage, setting a personal record in the biggest meet of the indoor season. The triple jumper was leading headed into the finals but still finished third overall with a career-best 15.51 meters.

"The atmosphere at the track today for Penn State was fantastic," jumps coach Andrew Hardyk said. "Our team really came together today and cheered each other on. And basically that's where Clarence really got some energy from the rest of the team ... it was almost like the baton got passed to Clarence, and it was his turn to do really well."

Ryan Fritz was the only Big Ten champion on the men's side, capturing the high jump title with another personal best of 7 feet, 3 inches. The victory came one year after finishing runner-up as a freshman last season.

"He did a great job to pull off a victory for Penn State," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "It doesn't get much better than that. It takes a personal best to win the event, and you come out on top. That's pretty cool."

In addition to going after the Big Ten high jump crown, Fritz had his eyes set on the Penn State school record of 7-4.0. He had tried at the height numerous times earlier in the season, and yesterday was no different.

After already having first place locked up and not missing a single attempt up to that point in the competition, the sophomore standout made three solid tries at 7-4.25.

His last go at it was incredibly close.

"I thought he made it, honestly," Hardyk said. "He just barely ticked it off with his heel. That was going to be icing on the cake if he made that height. After he missed it -- and he was so close -- he was almost a little bit disappointed. Two minutes later you're kinda like, 'Wait a minute, he's the Big Ten champion. That's not disappointing at all.' "

Other solid performances in the meet came from a pair of third place finishers for the Penn State -- Ron Jules in the 60-meter hurdles and Mark Miller in the 800 meters.

Shot putters Steve Meyers and Dane Miller finished in fifth and sixth, respectively.

While the indoor season is over for all the track and field athletes on the men's side -- except for Fritz, who will compete in the NCAA championships in two weeks -- the Big Ten meet was a successful stepping stone to improve both individually and as a team for the future.

"The team just finished half a point shy of seventh and, certainly, we feel like we have a much better team than that," Alford-Sullivan said. "We didn't have a good first day. They turned it around, however, and made the second day that much stronger.

"I was very proud of the turnaround they made and it really shows that they got a lot of heart and potential for the future."