An unexpected Nittany Lion paced her team on Saturday when originally redshirted senior Tracey Brauksieck placed 39th out of 289 runners, leading the Penn State women's cross country team at the Penn State National.

"It's good to have Tracey back. I think she ran very well. She definitely helped our team out a lot," sophomore Sonja Hinish said.

Brauksieck's time of 22:03 led the Lions to a 15th-place finish with a score of 445 in a 39-team field at Penn State's Blue and White Courses.

Duke University finished first with a score of 22.

"We definitely tried to clean up and run well for this meet," team captain and fifth-year senior Kate Curran said. "It's definitely good preparation getting ready for the Big Ten meet."

The Big Ten Championships will be held October 30 in Minnesota.

"Now, we're just gearing toward Big Tens," said, freshman Janelle Young, who followed Brauksieck with a time 22:46 for 79th place. "Our team just wanted to do better then we did at [the Paul Short Invitational.] I just wanted to go out hard. I thought the race was really competitive."

Hinish finished 92nd with a time of 22:58.

"I'm pleased with my race. I moved through the race. I kept passing people. I didn't fall asleep," Hinish said.

Kate Curran finished 103rd in 23:07.

"I was happy, but at the same time bigger and better things need to happen for the Big Ten meet," Curran said.

Freshman Claire Berryman finished 132nd in 23:34 while juniors Kelly Chadwick and Shannon Van Dyke finished 138th (23:38) and 144th (23:42), respectively.