March 14, 2015
Men's Results | Women's Results | Gondak Interview
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Day one of the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships was capped off with a second-place finish for Penn State in the men's distance medley relay inside the Randal Tyson Track Center Friday. The Nittany Lions tallied one first team All-America finish and two second-team All-America finishes Friday.
Anchored by a tactical 1,600-meter leg by Robby Creese (Mount Airy, Md.) the Nittany Lions finished second in the men's distance medley relay with a time of 9:32.21.
"It was just a great race for those guys," said head coach/director of Penn State track & field John Gondak on the men's distance medley relay.
Leading off the DMR for Penn State was Brannon Kidder (Lancaster, Ohio), who three hours earlier qualified for the final of men's one-mile run. Kidder battled from the back of the race for the majority of his 1,200-meter leg to put the Nittany Lions in third place heading into second leg.
On the 400-meter leg, Alex Shisler (State College, Pa.) split 46.86 to keep the Nittany Lions in the hunt and Za'Von Watkins (Liverpool, N.Y.) followed that with a time of 1:47.61 in the 800-leg to maintain Penn State's third-place standing.
"For Brannon Kidder to double back three hours later after advancing to the final of the mile and put us in third-place after the lead off leg was just phenomenal," Gondak said. "Alex Shisler did his job and he ran his fastest split of the indoor season and he hands it off to Za'Von for a lifetime best split. He was on cloud nine."
On the final leg, Creese used the first 1,200-meters to track down Iowa State and Georgetown. With about 400-meters left in the race, Creese joined Iowa State, Georgetown, Oregon, Villanova and Virginia in the lead pack.
On the final lap, Oregon's Edward Cheserek broke away from the pack with Creese chasing. Cheserek and Creese separated themselves from the rest of the pack and Cheserek finished first (9:30.53) with Creese finishing strong to give the Nittany Lions a second-place finish.
"Robby ran an incredible tactical race, he just knows that everyone runs hard for the first 800 and he just bided his time to move and he made a really aggressive move from 800 to 1,400 to put himself in it and then he made a great run to finish second," Gondak said.
The quartet of Kidder, Shisler, Watkins and Creese add first team All-America honors to their names after capturing the Big Ten title just a few weeks ago.
Two years ago at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships, Creese, Kidder, Watkins were on the Penn State distance medley relay that captured second-place with their time of 9:34.00.
Kidder began his two event day with the prelims of one-mile run at 6:15 p.m. (CT) in heat one of the prelims of the men's mile, Kidder was edged out by the defending NCAA mile champion, Anthony Rotich, for the final automatic qualifying spot in heat one.
Seven-hundredths of a second separated Colorado's Jake Hurysz (3:59.93), Rotich (3:59.94) and Kidder (4:00.00) for spots three through five. With Kidder finishing fifth in heat one, he would have to wait to see if his time would qualify him for the final.
"I am excited to race again ... survive and advance," Kidder said. "It doesn't matter who qualified first or tenth."
In heat two, just over a second separated spots four through six. Oklahoma State's Chad Noelle grabbed the final automatic bid in heat two with his time of 3:59.06, while Georgetown's Ahmed Bile ran 3:59.92 and Julian Oakley from Providence posted a time of 4:00.25 to finish fifth and sixth, respectively.
Kidder's time of 4:00.00 held as the 10th and final qualifying time for Saturday's mile final.
Making her first appearance at an NCAA Championship meet, Rachel Fatherly (Williamsport, Pa.) tallied a 16th-place finish in the women's weight throw with her toss of 63-1.25.
The Nittany Lion women were represented on the track Friday night with Kiah Seymour (Washington, D.C.) running in the prelims of the 400-meter dash. Heading into the women's 400-meter dash, Seymour was the 14th seed with her qualifying time of 52.72. Seymour posted a time of 52.86 to finish fourth in her heat and 10th overall. Seymour's heat posted four of the top-10 times in the prelims.
For their performances Friday, Fatherly and Seymour garnered second team All-America honors.
With the day one in the books, the Penn State men are currently tied for sixth with eight points.
The 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships conclude tomorrow starting at 10:45 a.m. (CDT). Saturday for Penn State includes Fatherly in the women's shot put (3:45 p.m. CDT), Brian Leap (Bellwood, Pa.) in the men's triple jump (6 p.m. CDT), Kidder in the final of the men's one mile run (6:10 p.m. CDT), Darrell Hill (Philadelphia, Pa.) in the men's shot put (6:30 p.m. CDT), Creese in the men's 3,000-meter run (8:15 p.m. CDT) and the women's 4x400-meter relay at 8:30 p.m. (CDT)
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