Feb. 29, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - With months of training under their legs and a huge weekend of competition ahead of them, the Penn State women's track and field team will finally head into the post season this weekend, traveling to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The eighth-ranked Nittany Lions are undoubtedly one of the top contenders for the conference crown, but the road won't be an easy one, as No. 5 Michigan, the winner of five of the last seven Big Ten titles, and No. 7 Minnesota, this year's host and last year's champions standing in the way.
Leading the way for the Lions will be nine-time Big Ten Champion Shana Cox (Westbury, N.Y.), who will be making her final appearance at the indoor conference meet. Cox will look to go out with a bang, entering the meet with an NCAA-leading 400-meter time of 52.57, and hungry to add some more hardware to her already overflowing collection. Cox won't be the only Nittany Lion in position to make a splash in the event, as the senior's supporting cast includes sprint standouts Dominique Blake (Bronx, N.Y.), Fawn Dorr (Akron, N.Y.), and Briene Simmons (Decatur, Ga.), who, along with Cox, hold four of the top seven seed times on the conference's list of initial entries. Standing in the way of a Lion pack in the 400 is Iowa standout Kineke Alexander, last year's conference champion as well as the 2006 NCAA winner indoors. Alexander's 53.14 season best is the second-fastest in the conference.
After a breakthrough weekend at the Tyson Invitational, junior Aleesha Barber (Decatur, Ga.) will look for continued success at the conference meet. Barber bolted to a school-record 8.19 in the 60-meter hurdles - the eighth-fastest time nationally, and second-best in the Big Ten. Barber would also run a PR 24.12 200-meters in Arkansas, putting her second to only teammate Shavon GReaves (Lakewood, N.J.) in the Big Ten standings. Greaves, who enters the meet with a 23.97 seed, is the only Big Ten woman to dip under the 24-second barrier this season.
The Lion sprinters will also vie for their third-consecutive indoor 4x400-meter title, coming into the championships with a conference-leading 3:35.12, which is also the third-fastest performance in the nation this year. The Lions will also have a shot at a medal performance in the distance medley relay after running a provisional qualifying 11:17.93 on Feb. 8. Penn State took bronze medal honors in the event in 2007, and holds the third-fastest seed time in the event this year.
Sophomore Bridget Franek (Hiram, Ohio) also faces her most difficult competition of the season, as she and her distance teammates will be up against arguably the toughest conference in the country in the mile and up. Also hoping to make a dent in the scoring in a mile field that is already a dozen deep in provisional qualifiers, will be sophomore Leah Rosenfeld (Ridgefield, Conn.), and junior Claire Percival (Sarnia, Ontario), who posted PRs of 4:49.14, and 4:41.86, respectively, at the Tyson Invitational. Standing in the way in the distance events will be the always dangerous Michigan contingent including national mile leader Nicole Edwards, as well as Iowa standouts Meghan Armstrong and Diane Nukuri.
Junior Gayle Hunter (Riverside, Calif.) will go into the weekend as the top seed in the pentathlon, after posting a school-record and NCAA automatic-qualifying 4073 in January. But Hunter will be pressed for the win, facing a total of four NCAA qualifiers, including three-time defending champ Liz Roehrig of Minnesota and All-American Bettie Wade of Michigan.
Hunter will also likely double back in the individual events, joining jumps crew Lena Bettis (Riverside, Calif.), Gabriela Baiter (Greenlawn, N.Y.), and Bianca Fung (North Babylon, N.Y.). Bettis and Baiter have been hot in the closing weeks of the regular season, as both posted provisional qualifier triple jumps at the Virginia Tech Elite meet, with Bettis making it two-for-two with an NCAA performance in the long jump. Bettis is the two-seed in the long, while Baiter is rated second in the triple.
Veterans Helen Higgins (Waynesburg, Pa.) and Emma Schmelzer (Bloomington, Ill.) will cover the Lion throws, as Higgins is rated fourth in the weight and Schmelzer is ranked eighth in the shot put. Both women added points to the Lion total in the weight in 2007.
The championships begin on Saturday, March 1, starting with the pentathlon at 9 a.m. CST. The meet is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, March 2, with the 4x400 at 3:30 p.m. Fans can log onto www.BigTen.org to follow all the action, and check back to www.GoPSUsports.com for full Penn State recaps at the conclusion of both days.
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