The Penn State men's track and field team used a trip south to turn in some of the season's top marks, as the Nittany Lions traveled to Auburn University this weekend to compete in the Tiger Track Classic.

With pleasant spring weather and a handful of regional qualifiers competing to hit the standard in other events, the Lions had expectations of competing well against some of the nation's top track and field programs.

In the javelin, Penn State stand-out Allen Pettner threw a facility record of 219-feet, 9-inches to win the event.

Teammate Tanner Evak notched a second place finish for the Lions with a regional qualifying distance of 217-3.

Ryan Fritz gave another strong performance in what has already been a successful sophomore year. The high jumper finished second with an outdoor best 7-1.

"I was pretty happy with it. It was the best jump I've had at Penn State outdoor so far," Fritz said.

The high jump event was indicative of the high level of competition the Lions faced on Saturday.

"There was another all-American from indoor from Georgia Tech, and I got beat by a guy who jumped 7-5, so it was a pretty tough meet," Fritz said of the high jump field that he faced.

In the decathlon, Chris Morrisey secured a runner-up placing for Penn State. His 6,381 points were second only to Joe Detmer of Wisconsin.

Running a personal best of three minutes, 54.34 seconds in the 1500 meters, middle distance runner Tim Johnson captured fifth place in the strong field.

Dane Miller was the only Lion to earn two top ten-10 finishes.

Miller took fourth in the discus with a distance of 152-1 and sixth in the shot put with a throw of 54-2.75.

In the pole vault, John Vellenoweth placed fifth with a height of 15-7.

In hurdle events, Caleb Hood and Adam Stanowick took fourth and ninth, respectively.

Hood ran a 52.95 in the 400 hurdles, and Stanowick ran 14.73 in the 110-meter hurdles.

The 3,000-meter steeplechase featured John Mahoney notching third place with a time of 9:27.23.

With the Tiger Track Classic yielding numerous successful performances for many athletes on the team, the regional qualifying list has grown to five for the men's side.

Evak joins teammates Mark Miller, Steve Myers, Fritz and Pettner as Penn State athletes who have their berth to the regional championship secured.