State College, Pa. - November 14, 2005 - Penn State Nittany Lion junior Dan Mazzocco will make his third straight trip to the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Penn State's top runner, Mazzocco will take part in the event on Nov. 21 at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind.

Mazzocco has qualified for the NCAA Championships as the first at-large selection. This will mark the third time that the junior has earned a bid to nationals in three years of competition. His seventh place finish at regionals this year follows 18-months of battling injuries. Mazzocco, running healthy now, earned the at-large spot based on his place at regionals as well as his time, 30:19.02, was very fast. Mazzocco won the regional title as a freshmen and was fourth last year but has been battling nagging injuries for a year and a half.

The junior led Penn State to an eighth-place tie in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, held Sunday at Lehigh University. He finished 7th overall with a time of 30:19.02. Also placing were senior Christopher Nirschel (38th, 31:32.4), sophomore Oskar Nordenbring (56th, 31:52.8), sophomore Michael Syrnick (74th, 32:17.3), senior Sean Kennedy (81st, 32:27.5), senior Matt Lincoln (86th, 32:32.7) and senior Ian McCann (112th, 33:02.7).

The Lions accumulated a total of 256 points, tying with host Lehigh. Georgetown took first place, followed by American, Princeton, LaSalle, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Georgetown senior Fleet Hower took first place with a time of 30:03.8. LaSalle junior Sean Quigley (30:06.1) and Pennsylvania senior Courtney Jaworski (30:08.3) rounded out the top three. The top two teams qualify for the NCAA Championships, as well as the top four finishers not from the qualifying teams.