As the NCAA indoor track and field championship selections were announced Monday night, the Penn State women's team furiously checked the Web to be the first to see whose name would appear.

"Right around [9 p.m.], we were all clicking and just kept clicking to see if it was up yet," said freshman Bridget Franek, who was selected in the 1-mile event. "I never in a million years thought I would be selected."

When the selections were finally posted, Franek and six other teammates were chosen to compete at the national championships Friday and Saturday at the University of Arkansas' Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. The seven participants are the most Penn State has ever sent to the women's indoor championships.

"We just feel great about the selections," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We had an absolute slam dunk. We're very excited that Briene made it in the 800 and Bridget made it through in the mile. Those were a little bit of a surprise off of the rankings coming into selections."

Before the selections were posted, there was plenty of suspense about who would make the final cut. The coaching staff hoped the marks set by these athletes would be enough to take them to nationals, but before other schools' scratches and double-qualifiers were removed, there was no way of knowing.

Penn State was sure some of the selections were on the way, but several others were on the bubble, including Franek in the 1-mile event and Briene Simmons in the 800-meter event. Aleesha Barber just made it into the 60-meter-hurdles event with a time of 8.25 seconds, the last qualifier in that event.

"Aleesha was on the bubble with the hurdles, but we felt, knowing that she was in the top 15 or 16, that that would be a slam dunk too," Alford-Sullivan said. "So we just feel great about the selections."

Shana Cox was guaranteed a spot at nationals after automatically qualifying in the 400-meter event with a time of 52.31 seconds. Penn State's relay teams were also sure of a spot with the Big Ten champion 4 x 400-meter relay team posting the No. 4 time in the country and the distance medley relay team running in the top 12. Gayle Hunter also qualified in the pentathlon.

Bringing more athletes to the meet will give Penn State greater flexibility in choosing its relay teams. At nationals, any athlete for a school that qualifies for the meet can compete for that school's relay teams.

"It's a good representation of the balance of our team," Alford-Sullivan said. "From field events with Gayle in the pentathlon, to sprint events to distance events, it's pretty exciting to see the balance of the team represented."