The No. 22 Penn State women's track and field team will stay close to home this weekend when they travel to compete at the Bucknell Team Challenge tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Lewisburg, PA.

The team was originally scheduled to host the Jim Thorpe Invitational at home this weekend, but chose to cancel that meet due to a lack of entrants.

After three straight weeks against top competition, the Bucknell meet offers a breather for the team as it prepares for next week's Penn Relays and the upcoming Big Ten championships.

"It's kind of an off weekend," head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "We've been going hard for three weeks and we wanted to just put a low-key meet at home but we didn't get a lot for entries here at home. We just thought it would be in our best interest to take a partial squad over to Bucknell."

And even though several athletes missed opportunities to qualify for the NCAA regional championships due to rain last week, the coaching staff still plans to make this weekend less intense in an effort to have the team fresh for more prestigious competition later in the season.

"Everything is geared towards Big Tens," assistant coach Chris Johnson said. "It's not a high caliber meet but you still expect to perform well."

Not accompanying the team to Bucknell will be Big Ten Athlete of the Week Shana Cox, who was named top athlete in the conference for the second straight week, and the third time this year.

Cox, who was also named the top athlete at last week's Sea Ray Relays, defeated former Olympic gold medalist DeeDee Trotter to win the 400 meters at last week's meet. Her time of 51.81 seconds is the second-fastest time run in the NCAA this year.

Cox leads the way for a squad that is gaining momentum after a disappointing end to its indoor season. After being ranked for the majority of the indoor season, the team cracked the TrackWire.com top 25 rankings for the first time this indoor season, debuting at No. 22.