A week after four athletes on the men's track and field team earned a NCAA regional qualifying mark in their respective events, the team will look to add more members to that short list this weekend at the Tiger Track Classic.

Nittany Lions Mark Miller and Allen Pettner punched their ticket to the regional championships last weekend at the Stanford Invitational. Ryan Fritz and Steve Myers did so at the George Mason Invitational.

The competition level at Auburn University's track on Saturday will be high, featuring many top teams from the Southeastern Conference as well as Big Ten foes Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue and Minnesota.

In addition to the numerous athletes on the team looking for their first regional qualifying standard, the few that already have one will be looking for more.

"Some of the people that already qualified are trying to qualify in different events as well," Miller said. "So they are going to be going after this week just as much as they did last week."

Miller will be taking a weekend off from his specialty race -- the 800 meters -- and be competing in the 400 and the 4x400 for the Lions.

"It's going to be a little different than what I normally run," he said. "I'm looking forward to seeing some of the [other Big Ten runners], seeing where they are in their training. It should be interesting to see where people are."

Every athlete on the team will be using the first glimpse of fellow Big Ten rivals this weekend to their advantage. Even with the conference championship meet being over a month away, the Tiger Track Classic will provide insight as to where other athletes are at early in the season.

For Miller, the change in races is the result of the 1 minute, 50.25 seconds 800 meters he ran last weekend, a time that gives the reigning Big Ten champion in the half mile an opportunity to use Saturday as training.

"I don't think I have the speed to qualify [for the regional meet] in the 400, so it's more of just getting my body used to going a bit faster on an outdoor track and getting ready for my opening lap of the 800," he said.

Every meet of the young outdoor can be considering a method of training and getting stronger. However, every member of the men's track and field who missed their mark last weekend, will be trying to get their regional qualifying standard on Saturday in only the second competition of the season.

Success at Auburn will make the rest of the season less stressful.

"You don't have to worry about [the qualifying mark], jumps coach Andrew Hardyk said. "The rest of the time you aren't worried about a certain time or a certain distance you are just worried about competing and doing well in the competition area. It does take some pressure off to have that out of the way."