It was a building experience for the Penn State women's track and field team on Saturday at the Penn State Open at the Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.

In the second meet of the season, the team focused on individual achievements to build toward the start of Big Ten competition. Facing eight other teams including West Virginia, Rutgers, Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Division II powerhouse St. Augustine's, the Nittany Lions managed to win six of the 16 events, more than any other team at the meet.

Senior Briene Simmons broke a 28-year-old Penn State record while winning the 1,000 meter race with a time of 2:48:21, besting the old one of 2:49.00.

"The event of 1000 meters is not run every single weekend, so she hasn't had that many opportunities at it," Penn State coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "The last time she ran it she missed the school record by about half a second, so this was redemption on that and I was really proud of her."

Placing second in the 1,000 meter run was Penn State freshman Bridget Franek, highlighting contributions made by her and other freshmen on this year's squad. Freshman

Lauren Burns had a career day, posting personal bests while winning both the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter run. The success of those freshmen was a highlight of the day for Alford-Sullivan, who said that as the season continues, they will continue to improve.

Penn State took the top two spots in both the 60-meter hurdles and the pole vault.

Aleesha Barber and Gayle Hunter took first and second place in the 60-meter hurdles, while Jacqueline Meisnner and Caitlin Fairbairn took the top two pole vault spots.

Notes

Penn State's four-time All-American Shana Cox sat out the meet to continue to rest after a summer competition delayed her fall training schedule.

Alford-Sullivan stressed that Cox is healthy and training well and will be making her debut next weekend. Alford-Sullivan is keeping Cox out for the first two home meets will maker her "a little bit sharper,"

"We definitely had a step forward from last week to this week and the women's team is on pace for what they want as an ultimate end result," Alford-Sullivan said. "They're getting a lot of great racing experience, a lot of good team energy going and they look to really be tremendous."

That ultimate end result for the team will be to win the Big Ten championship, a difficult task in a very competitive track and field conference.