During this winter, Penn State javelin throwers Allen Pettner and Tanner Evak were training hard like the rest of the team.

But unlike their teammates, the pair never got to see the results of their work because the javelin is not an indoor event.

Pettner enjoyed rooting on his teammates during the indoor season, but when he watched someone achieve a goal, it got him fired up for the outdoor season.

"You can see the overall picture, but it's definitely a time of ups and downs," Pettner said. "One weekend you are really excited because one of your teammates has a big, big weekend and then you start thinking about throwing."

The javelin throwers are excited about the opening meets of the outdoor season this weekend. Pettner will be throwing in the highly competitive Stanford Invitational and Evak is set to throw in the George Mason Invitational. Pettner and Evak respectively finished first and third in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in 2006 and are being counted on to have another great season.

The duo has finally been able to train outside in the last two weeks now that the weather has warmed up enough. The nicer weather has allowed them to make full throws down at the track, a sharp contrast to their training in the Multi-Sport Facility.

Without having weekly meets, throwers' coach Dayna Holston Wenger tried to make training more competitive to keep the players fresh during the indoor season.

"We try to do some things within our training that are competitive because they don't have the weekly competition," Holston Wenger said. "We do a lot of testing, different jumping exercises, medicine ball exercises and working in the weight room just to have them compete. We're just trying to keep them in that competitive mindset."

While not competing with teammates was a little frustrating for Evak, it is something that he has known and has gotten used to it over the years.

"I enjoy watching my teammates and training with these guys," Evak said. "We're all in it together, we've worked through it. If I could be doing something for the team I would like to, but that is not an option."

The javelin throw has traditionally been one of Penn State's stronger events over the years, and this year will be no exception.

Pettner's throw of 218-feet, 6-inches in last year's Big Ten championships ranks him ninth in Penn State's record books. After a strong offseason workout, he is optimistic that he could even challenge Troy Buckholder's Penn State record of 237-1.

"Definitely one of my goals is to beat the school record," Pettner said.

"The shape that I'm in right now and just how good I feel about everything makes me feel that I am capable of it."

Another goal of Pettners is to repeat as Big Ten champion. However, he realizes that he is going to face some tough competition, especially from his own teammate.

For as much as he would like to see Pettner repeat as champion, Evak is not shy to point out that it is also a goal of his to win Big Tens.

The pair enjoys the friendly competition between them. Evak realizes the value of having good throwers from the same team during big meets.

"We are all good friends and we do just push each other," Evak said. "When one is doing well, we just keep trying to go catch each other. We're all just raising the bar for each other."