March 15, 2015
Final Results | Hill Interview | Kidder Interview
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Penn State track & field team wrapped up competition Saturday at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships inside the Randal Tyson Track Center. Overall, the Penn State men posted the top spot in the Big Ten with their 12th-place finish (15 points). The Nittany Lions competed in six events Saturday.
"I thought overall it was a good weekend," head coach/director of Penn State track & field John Gondak said. "It is exciting to be a top-12 NCAA team and the top Big Ten team on the men's side."
The women's 4x400-meter relay featured an exciting finish for the Nittany Lions. Sophomore Megan Osborne (Chillicothe, Ohio) joined returning All-Americans Dynasty McGee (Flint, Mich.), Tichina Rhodes (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Kiah Seymour (Washington, D.C.).
On the opening leg, Osborne split 54.79 to put the Nittany Lions in third heading into the second leg. Then McGee split 54.00 followed by 53.48 from Rhodes on the third leg. With the anchor leg left, the Nittany Lions found themselves in third place, but a strong leg by Seymour overtook the field.
Seymour tracked down Miami and Florida State with her split of 51.96 to give the Nittany Lions a first-place finish in heat one. Penn State had to wait for the next two heats to see where they would finish. Overall, the Nittany Lion women's 4x400-meter relay finished eighth with its season-best time of 3:34.57 to garner first team All-America honors for the second-straight year.
Also competing for the Nittany Lion women Saturday was Rachel Fatherly (Williamsport, Pa.).
After a 16th-place finish in the women's weight throw Friday, Fatherly returned to the ring for the shot put. In the shot put, Fatherly recorded a mark of 52-10 on her third attempt to place 11th.
The Nittany Lion men competed in the mile, 3,000-meter run, shot put and triple jump.
On Friday, junior Brannon Kidder (Lancaster, Ohio) ran 4:00.00 in the prelims of the mile and split 2:58.18 on the opening leg of the distance medley relay. Saturday, Kidder returned to the track for the final of the mile.
With 600-meters into the race, Montana State's Cristian Soratos and Oregon's Edward Cheserek broke away from the pack with UTEP's Anthony Rotich chasing leaving Kidder and the rest of the field behind. With the top three spots separated from the rest of the field, Kidder found himself battling for fourth. In the final homestretch, Kidder was edged out at the line as spots four through eight were separated by sixth-tenths of a second. Kidder went onto finish seventh in the race with his time of 4:04.48, finishing four-hundredths of a second behind Oregon's Daniel Winn for sixth.
Kidder's seventh-place finish in the men's mile Saturday is the highest Nittany Lion finish since Ryan Foster took third in 2011.
A day after anchoring the Nittany Lions to a second-place finish in the distance medley relay, senior Robby Creese (Mount Airy, Md.) made his way back to the track for the men's 3,000-meter run Saturday. In the men's 3,000-meter run, Creese clocked in at 8:06.53 for a 12th-place finish.
The Nittany Lion men were represented in field with seniors Darrell Hill (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Brian Leap (Bellwood, Pa.).
After fouling his first two attempts in the shot put, Hill used his final attempt in the trials to qualify him for the finals. On his third attempt of the day, Hill recorded a mark of 61-7.50 to move into sixth.
On his first throw of the finals, he posted a distance of 64-8 to move into third. His mark would not hold though as Jonathan Jones from Albany tossed 67-6.75 on his final attempt to finish third and bump Hill to fourth.
With his fourth-place finish, Hill becomes the fourth Nittany Lion to finish fourth or higher at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the men's shot put. His finish Saturday in the shot put is the highest since Joe Kovacs finished third in 2010.
Along with Hill, Leap made his first appearance at an NCAA Championship Indoor meet Saturday. In his first NCAA Indoor meet, Leap tallied a 13th-place finish in the men's triple jump with his distance of 51-4.50.
In all, nine out of the 11 student-athletes that competed this weekend tallied first team All-America honors.
"We had a goal for everyone to leave as an [first team] All-American and we came close as nine out of the 11 student-athletes posted [first team] All-America finishes," Gondak said.
"It was a phenomenal indoor season for Penn State track & field," Gondak said. "We were extremely competitive at the conference meet on both sides of the program, which is something that is a goal of this program. We have a lot of young members in our program, along with a lot of great veterans on this team."
With the indoor season now in the books, the Nittany Lions will open up the outdoor season with the Florida Relays, April 3-4, in Gainesville, Fla.
For more on Nittany Lion track & field, log onto www.GoPSUsports.com or follow the team on Twitter @PennStateTFXC.