Coming around the final bend of the mile on Saturday, Tracey Brauksieck saw no one in front of her. She sprinted past the finish, took some time to catch her breath, stretched, and turned around.

She was still alone at the finish line.

This is what Brauksieck experienced last Saturday at the U.S. Track Coaches Association Series meet, winning the mile event by a little more than 10 seconds over the rest of the field. Her time of 4:50:49 earned the Penn State women's indoor track team 10 points en route to a dominating win at the opening meet of the season.

The most impressive aspect of Brauksieck's win? She's only a freshman.

"It was kind of a surprise when I saw no one else had finished yet," Brauksieck said. "I figured I'd probably run about a four fifty-five, but this was a personal best for me."

Brauksieck was the only runner out of 27 who finished under five minutes in the mile, beating out junior Carre Joyce of Villanova, who finished second. Eight of those 27 competitors were upperclassmen.

Despite this being just her first year on campus, Brauksieck had already made a name for herself during the cross country season in the fall.

In her debut race, she won her first collegiate cross country meet at the Spiked Shoe Invitational.

She led the Nittany Lions in points every meet after that. Brauksieck was named Big Ten athlete of the week three times, placed second at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals, and earned an automatic qualification for the NCAA Championship.

Partially due to Brauksieck's efforts, Penn State women's cross-country advanced to the NCAA finals as a team for the first time in six years.

She is optimistic that she can have
a similar impact on the indoor track team.

"I'm hoping I can qualify for the NCAA this semester too," Brauksieck said. "Either in the mile or the 3,000."

Although Brauksieck will get a rest when the Lions head to Kent State this weekend, Penn State women's track and field coach Beth Alford-Sullivan believes she will continue to improve as the season goes along.

"We're pretty excited about Tracey," Alford-Sullivan said. "I'm confident that she'll get better and better ... she's one to watch this year."

Alford-Sullivan, who says that Brauksieck is her strongest freshman overall, feels that things are running smoothly for Brauksieck and the entire team. Brauksieck echoed that statement.

"The team should do well without me," Brauksieck said. "I'm looking forward to this season. I think indoor track is my favorite so far because of the variety it offers."

If Brauksieck's enthusiasm for indoor track is greater, then outdoing her spectacular cross-country season is entirely possible.

As the season continues, one can expect to see her name near the top whenever she competes.