Friday, March 11
1:00 p.m ET
📑 Heat Sheets | 📊 LIVE Results | 📺 Watch LIVE (ESPN3)
Saturday, March 12
1:00 p.m. ET
📑 Heat Sheets | 📊 LIVE Results | 📺 Watch LIVE (ESPN3)
MEET PREVIEW
| Penn State Athletes Competing | |
| Tessa Barrett | Rachel Fatherly |
| Tori Gerlach | Dannielle Gibson |
| Isaiah Harris | Brannon Kidder |
| Jordan Makins | Alex Shisler |
| DMR Alternates: | Colin Abert |
| Robert Rhodes | |
March 10, 2016
NCAA Indoor Post-Season Guide
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Eight Nittany Lions will be representing Penn State track & field this week as they travel to the 2016 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, Mar. 11-12 at the BirmingÂham Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala. The meet will be broadcast live on the ESPN family of networks.
CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDS
Brannon Kidder, Isaiah Harris, Alex Shisler, and Jordan Makins will be representing the Nittany Lion men, while Tori Gerlach, Tessa Barrett, Dannielle Gibson, and Rachel Fatherly will compete for the Penn State women.
Four Nittany Lions will be making their return to an NCAA Championship meet, while HarÂris, Makins, Barrett, and Gibson will be making their NCAA Championships debut.
SEEDS (Based on their regular season performances)
Barrett - 9th (5,000-meters)
Fatherly - 8th (Shot Put)
Gerlach - 14th (5,000-meters)
Gibson - 15th (Triple Jump)
Harris - 4th (800-meters)
Kidder - 8th (800-meters)
Men's DMR - 3rd (Makins, Shisler, Harris, Kidder)
RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS
Brannon Kidder, Tessa Barrett, and Alex Shisler enter the meet having previously earned first-team All-American honors during cross country, indoor track & field or outdoor track & field.
HOW THEY QUALIFIED
On the track, Brannon Kidder ranks eighth in the 800-meters (1:47.01) while true freshman Isaiah Harris is fourth in the same event with his personal best time of 1:46.24. Kidder reÂcorded his time in a first-place finish at the Penn State National that was broadcast LIVE on FloTrack.com.
Harris punched his ticket to the championships with his historic run in the finals at the Big Ten Championships in Geneva, Ohio. Harris' run of 1:46.24 set a new all-time Big Ten indoor record, a Big Ten indoor championships record, a SPIRE institute facility record, a Penn State school record, and a personal best time in the process.
Tessa Barrett is ninth in the 5,000-meters running a school record time of 15:46.08 earlier this season in Seattle, Wash.
Senior Tori Gerlach, who is ranked 14th in the same event as Barrett, heads in to the championships with her time of 15:50.49 set in the final of the 5,000-meters at the Big Ten Championships as she took silver in the event for Penn State.
In the field, Rachel Fatherly ranks eighth in the shot put with her school record mark of 56'-8"/17.27m set at the Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup on February 5th, while Dannielle Gibson is 15th in the triple jump entering the championships with her No. 2 mark in Penn State indoor history of 43'-1.50"/13.14m she set at the Nittany Lion Challenge.
The men's DMR is ranked third in the nation with the quartet of Jordan Makins, Alex Shisler, Isaiah Harris, and Brannon Kidder laying down the No. 4 time in NCAA history at the time (Jan. 29) at 9:27.20.
B1G CHAMPS
Brannon Kidder and Isaiah Harris enter the championships having finished the Big Ten Indoor Champinships as individual champions. Harris captured the men's 800-meter title walking away from the field in the final 20-meters for the win, while Kidder led from beginning to end in the men's mile for Penn State.
USTFCCCA HONORS
The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTÂFCCCA) announced its regional awards March 4, 2016 and Penn State collectÂed a trio of honors. Award winners were voted upon by USTFCCCA member coaches.
Assistant coach Patrick Ebel was named the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic WomÂen's Assistant Coach of the Year while senior Rachel Fatherly (Williamsport, Pa.) was tabbed as the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Women's Field Athlete of the Year and Brannon Kidder (Lancaster, Ohio) nabbed Mid-Atlantic Men's Track Athlete of the Year honors.
Ebel, in his fourth season guiding the Penn State throwers, coached his shot putters to three of the top four individual finishes at the Big Ten Championships. National No. 8 Rachel Fatherly finished runner-up as one of three Nittany Lions to surpass 50 feet, Ebel also had two finalists in the Big Ten weight throw. Fatherly, the school record holder in the shot put, will compete at the NCAA Championships.
Kidder, a senior from Lancaster, Ohio, broke the collegiate 1000 meters record in 2:18.26, ranks No. 8 at 800-meters in 1:47.01 and anchored the No. 3 DMR with a 3:55 1600-meter split. Kidder won the mile at the Big Ten Championships and anchored the winning DMR. The senior from Lancaster, Ohio will put his individual undefeated record on the line over 800-meters at the NCAA ChampiÂonships, and will also run the DMR.
Fatherly, a senior from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, broke the Penn State record in the shot put with her mark of 17.27m (56-8) for the No. 8 rank in the country. Fatherly finished runner-up in the event at the Big Ten Championships to go along with a fourth-place weight throw finish. She will contest the shot put at the NCAA Championships.
TOP-5 PERFORMANCES
Penn State finished the pre-championships season with 23 new top-five mark in program history between the men's and women's programs.
Of the athletes competing at the NCAA Championships, six of the athletes competing have set a top-five mark this season including the men's DMR that currently holds the No. 2 time in program history at 9:27.20.
LAST YEARS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Penn State men posted three first team All-America finishes and the Penn State women's 4x400-meter relay recorded a first team All-America finish. InÂdividually, junior Brannon Kidder (Lancaster, Ohio) posted a pair of first team All-America finishes in the distance medley relay and the mile.
The Penn State men were highlighted by a runner-up finish in the distance medÂley relay. The quartet of Kidder, Alex Shisler (State College, Pa.), Za'Von WatÂkins (Liverpool, N.Y.) and Robby Creese (Mount Airy, Md.) clocked in at 9:32.21 to finish second. For Creese, Kidder and Watkins it is their second career first team All-America finish in the distance medley relay, as they finished second at the 2013 NCAA meet.
Kidder also finished seventh in the men's mile with his time of 4:04.48. His seventh-place finish in the men's mile Saturday is the highest Nittany Lion finish since Ryan Foster took third in 2011.
In the field, Darrell Hill (Philadelphia, Pa.) finished fourth (64-8) in the men's shot put. 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 and he also recorded the highest finish in the shot put since Joe Kovacs placed third in 2010.
On the women's side, the 4x400-meter relay of Megan Osborne (Chillicothe, Ohio), Dynasty McGee (Flint, Mich.), Tichina Rhodes (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Kiah Seymour (Washington, D.C.) posted an eighth-place finish with their season-best time of 3:34.57. McGee, Rhodes and Seymour repeated as first team All-Americans in the 4x400-meter relay from last year.
In all, nine out of the 11 Penn State student-athletes that competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships tallied first team All-America honors.
PENN STATE COMPETITION SCGHEDULE
FRIDAY-
8:25 p.m. ET - 800-meters Semifinal (Harris, Kidder)
9:25 p.m. ET - 5,000-meters FINAL (Barret, Gerlach)
9:45 p.m. ET - Men's DMR FINAL (Makins, Shisler, Harris, Kidder)
SATURDAY -
6:00 p.m. ET - Women's Triple Jump (Dannielle Gibson)
6:00 p.m. ET - Women's Shot Put (Rachel Fatherly)
6:30 p.m. ET - 800-meters FINAL (Qualifiers)
NCAA Track & Field On ESPN3
ESPN has exclusive broadcast rights for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. The following broadcast schedule (all times Eastern) outlines all live and rebroadcasts for the 2016 NCAA InÂdoor Track & Field Championships:
Friday, March 11..........................6:25 p.m. (ESPN3)
Saturday, March 12......................4:55 p.m. (ESPN3)
Sunday, March 13........................7 p.m. (ESPN2 | Tape Delay)
Wednesday, March 23.................10 p.m. (ESPN U | Tape Delay)
For more on Nittany Lion track & field, log onto www.GoPSUsÂports.com or follow the team on Twitter @PennStateTFXC.