Prior to the start of the season, no one thought the Penn State men's cross country team was a serious threat.

The Nittany Lions were coming off a ninth place finish at the Big Ten championship, an eighth place finish at regionals and hadn't been to nationals since 1994.

Four months later, Penn State has beaten two ranked teams -- then-No. 28 Villanova in October and current No. 28 Indiana -- en route to the Lions' fourth place finish at the Big Ten championship two weeks ago, the Lions' highest finish since 2000.

Now ranked 29th in the nation, Penn State is one race away from accomplishing its goal, something that isn't lost on the team.

"It really would be tremendous, for the cross country program, but for the track program as a whole," senior Teddy Quinn said. "Our success at Big Tens got the whole team excited, the track team coming in the locker room and guys are congratulating us. It comes full circle. It would validate a lot."

There are two paths the Lions can take to make it to the national meet. If Penn State finishes in the top two of the field, Penn State will receive an automatic bid to NCAAs.

However, if Penn State fails to crack the top two, the Lions can receive an at-large bid. According to coach Beth Alford-Sullivan, the chances of Penn State getting an at-large bid are good if it finishes in third. If the Lions finish fourth or fifth, Alford-Sullivan believes it would likely knock the Lions out of contention.

"We don't want to worry about that, we want to know if we're going to nationals right after the race, so we're aiming for second," senior John Mahoney said. "Right now, we're not thinking about that. We can't change it. We can't change what we did based on how we ran in the past. We really don't have any control over that. The only thing we have control over is how we race at regionals."

Despite the fact the future of Penn State's season rests all on one meet, the Lions haven't thought about where they go if they fail to reach nationals.

"It'd be difficult to say," Quinn said. "That's really the only goal we have left that we set during the preseason. We didn't have anything ready if we do go on, that's something we'd figure out after the meet. We're trying not to think about fallback plans just yet."

For the seven seniors, qualifying for nationals in their final season is something Quinn said would be the biggest thing any one of them has been a part of in college and would "completely validate the whole Penn State experience."

For Alford-Sullivan, who inherited this group of seniors following the retirement of longtime coach Harry Groves, it would be an emotional moment to see her seniors clinch a trip to nationals.

"They bought in, they went to work, they got serious, they laid down the miles and they laid down the hard work and the work ethic to be in this position," Alford-Sullivan said. "For me, if the men qualify for the national championship, it will be a huge accomplishment and I will be extremely proud of these young men."