The Penn State men's track and field team was not expected to contend for the conference title at this past weekend's Big Ten Indoor Championships.

Then again, an eighth-place finish out of the 10 teams was almost a worst-case scenario for a squad that had expectations of a top-5 finish.

The Nittany Lions could not have imagined getting off to a worse start in Saturday's competition, as they had to battle from a giant hole on Sunday.

Adam Stanowick was disqualified from the 60-meter dash for false starting; the distance medley relay team tripped and failed to finish the race, and the long jumpers performed poorly, adding up to a big zero on the scoreboard after the first day of competition.

"It was a big setback. It was a big disappointment. I was at the meet the first day, and just nothing went our way," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "The team was feeling it, and we were really struggling. We pulled together with a meeting at the end of the first day and said, 'We're not gonna feel sorry for ourselves, we're gonna start the day fresh tomorrow and get after it.' "

The Lions had to look to their best performers to get the team started on Sunday. Personal bests from jumpers Ryan Fritz and Clarence Smith propelled them to two of the Lions' top finishes. Fritz's jump of 7-feet, 3-inches in the high jump was good enough for first, giving Penn State its lone first place finish, and Smith's leap of 50-10.25 gave him third in the triple jump.

Ron Jules in the 60-meter hurdles and Mark Miller in the 800 meters also helped the Lions' team scoring by winning bronze medals in their events.

"Once the first day happened, there's no way to make it up. We knew going into the second day that we either had to turn the corner or continue to suffer," Alford-Sullivan said. "They really turned the corner. We had a great second day. Everyone that did make it through did the best under the circumstances."

Despite having a majority of the team back from last year's Big Ten Indoor Championships, the Lions total of 46 was only three points better than last year's performance, and both teams finished in eighth place.

Alford-Sullivan does not view the Big Ten Indoor Championship as a setback to the team's indoor season, but rather as a progression in building a championship-caliber team.

"We don't have the firepower to make a big dent this year," Alford-Sullivan said. "You have to go through the process of getting to a championship level, and they really took a big step that way."

Alford-Sullivan hopes that the ups-and-downs of the past weekend will help the Lions focus going into more big meets later in the outdoor season.

"They need to realize that it takes more than just wanting it and more than just thinking about it," she said. It takes the actual execution."