While one Florida State team appeared to all but clinch another Atlantic Coast Conference championship on Friday night, another found itself scrapping for every point it could find in a hotly contested meet.

Thanks to a boost from three football players, the FSU's men's track team showed off its depth during Friday's preliminary action and put itself in position to claim a fourth consecutive indoor title.

The men's swimming and diving team took a slim six-point lead in its championship meet heading into a Saturday of finals that will probably have plenty of drama. FSU will try to knock off seven-time defending champion Virginia in the meet held at Maryland.

"You look at our meet and you can see where this thing might come down to one or two points," FSU swimming coach Neil Harper said. "We need to get kids into consolation finals, we need to get kids into finals -- we need to see what we're made of on Saturday."

Harper's team dodged a major bullet on Friday night when the 400 medley relay team successfully appealed its disqualification. The relay was DQ'd when the automated system that senses take-offs from the blocks said that senior Joel Roycik left one one-hundreths of a second early.

According to Harper, the same automated system was scrapped during last week's women's meet because of continued malfunctions. The two meet officials assigned to FSU's lane in the event both said Roycik's take-off was clean.

By winning the appeal, FSU reclaimed the 34 points it earned by finishing second in the relay. That left the Seminoles holding the slim lead over Virginia entering Saturday's finals.

"Most of our kids left the pool tonight thinking we were 25 points adrift," Harper said. "And we sent many of them to bed early because they have to swim in the morning. So they'll get a nice surprise when they wake up."

Thanks to yet another individual title by All-American Andrew Lemoncello and some big points in the jumps, FSU's men's track team enters Saturday's finals tied with Clemson in first place with 50 points, 20 more than third-place Virginia Tech.

The Seminoles also got a huge boost on claiming their fourth straight indoor title with a dominant performance in the qualifying races for the sprint events.

"It was a great first day for us in qualifying," FSU coach Bob Braman said. "We got three in the 200 (meters) and four in the 60 (meters) and just missed having a fifth in the 60 by three one-thousandths of a second. So we're really happy with how things went today."

The Seminoles would almost have to completely stumble not to win the team title on Saturday. During Friday's preliminaries, FSU saw 10 athletes qualify for 11 spots in the finals. Clemson (five) and Virginia Tech (four) combined to send nine runners to the finals.

The Seminoles' depth in the sprinting events made the biggest impact.

With All-American Walter Dix skipping the meet because of what Braman said was a minor injury, FSU turned to the football team to help replenish the sprinting depth.

Receiver Kenny O'Neal (60 meters, 200 meters), tailback Antone Smith (60) and cornerback Michael Ray Garvin (60) each qualified for Saturday's finals. They will be joined by track-only stars Greg Bolden (60), Ronald Wright (200) and Ricardo Chambers (200, 400) in the finals.

"The football guys really came through," Braman said. "Kenny O'Neal, with a 6.70 in the 60, is pretty close to qualifying for NCAAs. He probably needs to get down to about a 6.67 to get there."

The Seminoles also picked up big points in the jumps and throws on Friday, thanks to a 2-3 finish by seniors Johnta Griffin and Rafeeq Curry in the long jump and a 4-8 finish by senior Andrew Diakos and freshman Matt Werneke in the weight throw.

Senior Shawn Allen and freshmen Javier Garcia-Tunon and Tim Reen went 4-6-7 in the high jump to add 10 more points to FSU's total.

Braman said he was especially excited with the efforts turned in by Garcia-Tunon, Reen and Werneke.

"Javier didn't score in the hurdles, which is his best event, but he turns around and gets unexpected points for us in the high jump," Braman said. "That was a big lift. And then Tim Reen, a walk-on, and Matt Werneke, another walk-on, go out and score in their events. Those were the things that made this a really good day. I thought the high jump was just a fantastic finish to the day."

FSU's workhorses in the distance events made sure the sprinters, jumpers and throwers didn't get all the glory.

The team of Luke Beevor, Willie Gaines, Chris Potter and Sean Burris earned eight points by finishing second in the distance medley relay.

Junior Tommy Noyes qualified third in the 800 meters, an event he placed third in at last year's indoor meet.

Junior Tom Lancashire qualified first overall in the mile and will try to earn his automatic NCAA qualifying mark during Saturday's final. He is the defending champion in the event.

Senior Andrew Lemoncello added yet another individual title to his already impressive resume, this time winning the 5,000 meters in a breeze. The senior from Scotland won the individual title at the ACC cross country championships and became FSU's first cross country All-American since Herb Wills (1981) this past fall.

Braman said Lemoncello "shut it down" the final 2,000 meters when he realized his pace was just off the mark he would need to qualify for the NCAA indoor meet.

"We didn't want to over-do it with him," Braman said. "He wasn't going to get the mark so I shut him down at the 3k mark."

That's a far cry from Lemoncello's workload a year ago at the ACC indoor meet, when both he and Lancashire ran three events each to help FSU squeeze by Clemson in a dramatic team finish.

Though both veterans are entered in Saturday's 3,000 meters, Braman said it is unlikely either will run. That signifys a notable shift in philosophy this year with the men's program.

Braman said his team's focus has been squarely on the NCAA outdoor meet this summer, which helps explain why Dix, Lancashire, Lemoncello and others are gradually ramping up their training as the spring semester unfolds.

A disappointing fourth-place finish at last year's NCAA outdoor meet spurred the change, Braman said.

"The indoor season took a toll on us last year," Braman said. "I do think at end of the day we were just too inexperienced at the outdoor championships last year and that was the biggest part of it. But indoors took a toll on us last year and we've got to be careful. In Tom's case, we ran him way too hard last year. So he finished eighth at nationals [in the 1,500 meters] instead of third."

In addition to the 11 qualifiers in the running finals, the Seminoles should get a boost in points from junior Garrett Johnson in the shot put, Curry in the triple jump and Matt Hurley in the pole vault.

While the men's team appears to be in solid shape, the women's team showed significant improvements from last year's sixth-place finish. FSU is third heading into Saturday's events, with seven athletes qualified for the finals.

The Seminoles placed two athletes in the finals of the mile (senior Natalie Hughes, junior Barbara Parker), the 400 (seniors Alycia Williams and Cynthia Niako), and the 200 (Williams, Niako).

Hughes, who redshirted last season, is the favorite to win the mile.

Junior India Pettus also qualified in the 800.

"That's a tremendous improvement for our women," Braman said. "To get two into the 200 and two into the 400 is a great accomplishment."

The women should pick up more points on Saturday in the 3,000 meters, where freshman Susan Kuijken is one of the top seeds, as well as the triple jump where junior Alyce Williams and senior LaToya Legree are seeded in the final flight.

Braman said he understands the Seminoles are a long shot to jump into the race for the title that is expected to come down between defending champion Miami and North Carolina.

"But I'd like to think we can make a run at third place," Braman said. "That would be a good finish for these girls."

With the successful appeal of the relay disqualification, FSU's swimmers now have a chance to pull off the school's first-ever sweep of the men's and women's team titles.

Last week, the women's team won its first league title.

Harper said the men have a tough battle if they want to do the same.

"We saw all of our guys swim fast tonight," Harper said. "But the ladies were in a similar position last week and it became real clear to them on that last morning what they had to do to win it. We've got to show up tomorrow and outswim [Virginia] in the morning if we want to win this thing. It's up to what we do tomorrow morning."

Saturday morning is when the prelims of the 200-back, 100-free, 200-breast and 200-fly take place.

The Seminoles, on paper anyway, appear to be strongest in the 100-free where four swimmers -- Roycik, Ed Denton, Alex Kennon and Jarryd Botha -- are seeded among the top five in the event. But Virginia has already seen one of its lower-seeded freestylers win the consolation final of the 200-free and anchor the winning 400 medley relay team.

"That could be a huge one for us," Harper said. "UVa has one guy swimming really well and tonight he did a great job of anchoring their relay. The way he swam tonight, you have to think he'll make the finals. So we've got to put at least three or four guys in the top eight. This is a big swing event for us that we have to have."

That won't be the only time the sprint freestylers will be needed on Saturday.

The meet concludes with the 400 free relay, where all four of FSU's top sprinters may be fighting for the team title.

But before the Seminoles get to that point, they will first have to withstand what should be a strong showing by Virginia in the 200-breast and the 1,650-free.

Virginia has the first-, third- and fifth-seeded swimmers in the breast, while FSU counters with second-seeded Billy Jamerson (sixth in the 100-breast) and fourth-seeded Paul Erben (second in the 100-breast).

The Cavaliers first- and third-seeded athletes in the 1,650-free while FSU has second-seeded Steve Roof and seventh-seeded Kyle Young.

"Those guys are going to have to rough it up and get some points," Harper said. "The closer we get to the top, the more points we get and every point out there is important right now."

Those points become even more important with the recent illness by top backstroker/butterflier Ian Powell, who caught a stomach virus on Wednesday and has spent most of the last 36 hours fighting to hold food in his system.

Powell was considered one of the favorites to reach the finals in Friday's 100-fly, but Harper said he was fortunate simply to place 17th (and out of the scoring) in the race.

Powell, a sophomore from England, will try to compete in the 200-back and 200-fly on Saturday. He placed sixth in the 200-back at last year's ACC meet, but Harper said he'll be grateful for anything Powell can add to the scoring column this time around.

"He might be a little better tomorrow," Harper said. "We need him to be. If not, that's serious points we're counting on.

"Hopefully he can get into the consolation finals in his events and somehow come up with about 10 or 15 points for us. Anything beyond that is a bonus."

The Seminoles had medalists in three of the five individual events on Friday -- Roycik (second in the 100-fly); sophomore Carl Marais (second in the 200-free); and Erben (second in the 100-breast).

FSU also got a huge 80-point boost from its divers, who competed last weekend in conjunction with the women's team meet. Sophomore Alex Tillbrook, freshman Scott Derner and freshman Daniel Frebel placed 4-5-6 in the three-meter event to give the Seminoles key points.

Tillbrook and Frebel also placed 5-8 in the one-meter event.

Those points helped set up the Seminoles for what should be a dramatic final day.

Harper said he's looking forward to a spirited effort from his swimmers.

"Everyone has got to be accountable," Harper said. "We've got our go-to kids that we know are expected to be in the top eight and they've got to be there for us. We've got other guys who are seeded right outside the top eight and they've got to fight to get into the finals. We've got others who have to fight their way into the top 16 so they can swim in the consolation finals and help us get every point we can get.

"As a team, Virginia has risen in the morning better than we have. We've done a good job but we've got to do better. We've got to go down fighting."