Before this weekend, the last time Bridget Franek had ran the steeplechase was during the NCAA Outdoor Championships last June.
So in her first steeplechase run in 2009 this weekend in Lewisburg, Pa., all Franek did was break the Penn State track and field school record and the Christy Mathewson Stadium record that she already owned.
Franek's win in the steeplechase was one of the 15 victories and 10 regional qualifiers the Nittany Lions had this weekend at the Bison Outdoor Classic at Bucknell.
"We had an extremely good performance across the board," Penn State coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "I'm not sure of our total number but we probably doubled our number of regional qualifiers this weekend. The weather wasn't all that cooperative but we competed well and rose to the occasion."
Franek didn't just break the record, she demolished it. Her time of 9:53.7 in the steeplechase was almost five seconds better than her previous school record of 9:58.56. Her time Friday was more than 20 seconds better than her previous stadium record of 10:16.4.
After Friday, Franek's time is now the best in the country. And according the list from the International Association of Athletics Federations, Franek's time is now the best in the world this season.
"I think Bridget ran extremely well, she broke her own school record," Alford-Sullivan said.
"I would assume it's national leading mark. One of the top performances across the country."
Franek was just one of the solid performances Penn State put up at Bucknell despite once again not having ideal weather conditions for the second straight week.
Among the best was sophomore Ryan Foster, who also broke a Christy Mathewson Stadium record with his regional qualifying time of 1:48.79 en route to a victory in the 800 meters.
Mike Cadau was one of the winners as well, taking the 400 meters and finishing third in the 200, but his personal performance left him unsatisfied.
"Personally, obviously the times don't lie, my time wasn't an improvement from last week," Cadau said. "But as a program overall, there was a lot of improvement.
"Just like an example, our pole vaulters, one of our pole vaulter guys he came in and had a big performance on the day.
"We had a lot of regional marks throughout the field.
"In the discus we had a regional marks, in the 800 we had two regional marks so as a program you see the improvement."
Once again the women's team had a solid weekend. Fawn Dorr won the 400-meter run and the 400-meter hurdles for the second consecutive week, while Shavon Greaves won the 200-meters.
In all, it was a good weekend for Penn State, and definitely less stressful to make the hour or so drive to Bucknell than to make the 2,249-mile trek to Tucson, Ariz.
"Our travel plans were long, but this meet was just a track meet," senior John Mahoney said.
"We don't have anything else to focus on, anything else to distract us. The team just went out there to compete and get in a good competition. It was a good second meet for us, it's really going to be a meet we can build off of for the rest of the season, so I'm pretty happy with the way everything went this weekend."
