INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The Penn State track and field team will send 11 student-athletes to compete next weekend at the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships. The NCAA championships will be held at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station, Texas, March 10-11.
Week six rankings released by the USTFCCCA Tuesday have the Nittany Lion women's team ranked No. 17 in the nation.
On the women's side, Penn State will be represented in four individual events and the Distance Medley Relay by six athletes. The participants for the women are Tessa Barrett (5,000-meters; 3,000-meters), Danae Rivers (Mile; DMR), Dannielle Gibson (Triple Jump), Julie Kocjancic (DMR), Tichina Rhodes (DMR) and Rachel Banks (DMR).
Meanwhile, the men will have five entries to the NCAA championships, including two athletes in individual events and its No. 4 NCAA and school record 4x400-meter relay. The Nittany Lion men's individual NCAA entries are Isaiah Harris (800-meter), and Malik Moffett (200-meters).
The six athletes in the individual events earned a spot in the field by being among the top 16 marks in the NCAA this season, while the relays had to be in the nation's top-12 fastest times.
Harris, Barrett and Gibson have all earned at least one First-Team or Second-Team All-America honor in the past.
Harris, returns to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships following a 2016 season that saw the Lewiston, Maine native earn Second-Team All-American honors finishing 12th individually in the men's 800-meters in a time of 1:49.08. This season Harris has recorded the No. 6 800-meter time this season with his mark of 1:46.65 set in a first-place finish at the Rod McCravy memorial Invitational hosted by Kentucky last month.
Barrett qualified for the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 5,000-meters posting a time of 16:25.94 finishing 11th in the Second-Team All-American honors. This season Barrett qualified for the national meet with marks of 9:07.22 in the 3,000-meters and 15:28.99 in the 5,000-meters - both school record marks. Barrett will enter the meet as the top seed in the 5K.
At last season's NCAA indoor track and feld championships, Gibson finished 10th in the triple jump posting a mark of 42' 3.25" (12.88m) for Second-Team All-American honors. During 2017 Gibson has continued to be one of the top jumpers in the nation posting a season's best mark of 43'-9" (13.33m), her third best jump all-time under any conditions.
Rivers, a true freshman, has burst on the scene in 2017 and owns or is a part of four school records.
The Derby, Connecticut, native recorded her NCAA qualifying time in a first-place finish at the Husky Classic last month in Seattle, Washington, running 4:32.55.
Moffett, the school record holder in the 200-meters ranks enters the meet with a season best time of 20.76 set I the finals of the 200-meters the Big Ten championships this past weekend.
The men's 4x400-meter relay enters the meet sporting the fourth-best time in the field. The quartet of Dan Chisena, Xavier Smith, Samuel Reiser, and Isaiah Harris ran to the tune of 3:04.80 this past weekend at the Big Ten championships as they captured the conference title in the event.
The women's Distance Medley Relay, who set the school record at the Penn State Tune-Up a few weeks ago, running 11:01.16, will enter the meet with the No. 10 time in the nation this year.
ESPN3 will stream the meet live on March 10 starting at 6:25 p.m. ET and March 11 starting at 4:55 p.m. ET. A re-air of the championship will take place on Sunday, March 12, starting at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.