Dec. 12, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State track & field teams competed in the annual Blue & White meet at the Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track in Multi-Sport Complex Saturday afternoon with Penn State-White holding off Penn State-Blue 135-127 for the meet title.
The meet officially got underway Friday night at Holuba Hall with the men's and women's javelin throw.
Lauren Kenney led the way for the women with a best throw of 164'-00" (49.99m) scoring five points for the Penn State Blue team. Natalie Shiffler, Anna Bailey, and Kayla Zoschg would round out scoring in the event with marks of 159'-06" (48.61m), 147'-04" (44.90m), and 146'-04" (44.61m), respectively.
For the men, junior Ryan Kerr took the event with a best of 218'-06" (66.61m), followed by Robert Cardina (205'-00"/62.49m), Matt Nawrocki (200'-10"/61.21m), and Luke Rarig (166'-04"/50.70m) in second, third, and fourth, respectively.
Danielle Gibson would sweep the women's horizontal jumps recordingmarks of (6.03m) 19'-09.50" in the long and (12.75m) 41'-10.00" in the triple jump.
Brian leap would take the men's triple (15.55m/51'-00.25") while Malik Moffett claimed the long jump crown with a best jump of (7.48m) 24'-06.50".
Ahmenah Richardson would finish the competition as the No. 1 women's high jumper at the meet clearing (1.76m) 5'-09.25", while freshman Chisom Ifedi bowed out of competition haveing cleared (2.08m) 6'-09.75" to win the men's high jump.
Senior Rachel Fatherly would sweep the throws events with best of (20.59m) 67'-06.75" in the weight throw and (15.79m) 51'-09.75" in the shot put.
Morgan Shigo claimed top honors in the weight throw with his toss of (19.05m) 62'-06.00", while Jon Yohman was the shot put champion on the day with his performance of (17.18m) 56'-04.50".
Sophomore Quenee Dale sprinted to a 7.74 win in the women's 55m hurdles over Penn State-White teammate Madeline Homberg who would finish in second clocking 8.28, followed by Tal Ben-Artzi in third at 9.13 seconds.
Dale, who captured the win in the 55m hurdles, would return in the 55m-open to sweep the short sprints for the day running 7.04 over freshman sprinter Keianna Albury's 7.06 in second-place.
In the men's 55m it was sophomore Xavier Smith with a narrow victory over Malik Moffett running 6.30 to take the event win by a margin of three-one hundredths of a second over Moffett's time of 6.33.
Francis Bull, who would later anchor the Penn State-White "A" 4x400m relay to a victory, captured the individual win in the 500m holding off Rachel DeCecco in the closing meters of the homestretch running 1:16.21 and 1:16.75, respectively.
Robert Rhodes would take the 500m title on the men's side clocking 1:04.30, winning the event by almost a full two seconds over Penn State-Blue's Riley Gaibler (1:06.00).
Deja Davis, who like Bull would return to capture the women's 4x400m title, finished the 300m dash on top beating Penn State-Blue's Tichina Rhodes 39.05 to 39.40, respectively.
The men's 300m dash would feature two heats. Smith would sprint to the victory in heat one, while Peter Hughey would hold down the second heat winning in 35.45. Smith would claim the event victory having run 33.77 during his heat.
Julie Kocjancic would take the women's 1200m title (3:32.66) while Brandon Kidder led a 1-2-3 sweep of the men's 1200m by the Penn State-White team running 2:52.30 and finishing strong over the final 200m.
In the largest margin of victory on the day, Robby Creese walked away from the field in the men's 3000m run. Creese would finish in 8:10.64. Ean DiSilvio would claim second running 8:18.61 over the nearly two-mile race.
As is tradition in track & field the 4x400m relay concluded the day's schedule of events as the Penn State-White team would sweep both the men's and women's events.
The quartet of Davis, Megan Osborne, Dale, and Bull would pace the field to a time of 3:50.28 as the true freshman Frances Bull held off Penn State-Blue's Ashley Rankine over the final 200m.
The men's 4x400m relay would see Alex Shisler, Rhodes, David Marrington, and Isaiah Harris battle Penn State-Blue's Lamont Higgins, Sam Reiser, Anton Porter, and Hughey down to the wire as Penn State-White would pull out the event win to secure the meet win for the Penn State-White team.
Penn State-White would take the meet title by a final score of 135-127 over Penn State-Blue. Penn State will officially open up the 2016 indoor track & field season on Jan. 9th as they host the Penn State Relays at Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.
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