April 29, 2016
LIVE Results
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Led by the outstanding performance of the Penn State men's Distance Medley Relay to capture the meet title, Penn State qualified three men's relays to the finals for the first time in recent history and captured it's third men's shot put championship in as many years during day two action at the 122nd Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Highlighted by a 54-second final 400-meters from Brannon Kidder on the anchor leg for the men's distance medley relay, Penn State captured the Penn Relays title with their NCAA leading time of 9:35.51 for the first time since 2013 when Kidder, Brandon Bennett-Green, Casimir Loxsom, and Robby Creese won the event clocking 9:24.68.
Creese led the way off the line giving the Nittany Lions a 2:51.01 effort on the 1,200-meter leg handing off to Alex Shisler who split 47.77 for the 400-meter second leg. Freshman Isaiah Harris, currently ranked No. 4 in the NCAA in the 800-meters, clocked 1:49.96 on the half-mile leg of the race before making the final exchange for Penn State where Kidder ran 4:00.77 over the final 1,600-meters to give Penn State the win and the fifth DMR victory at Penn Relays in program history and put them in a tie with the University of Pennsylvania for fifth most wins all-time in Penn Relays history.
The time of 9:35.51 set today in the men's DMR ranks as the No. 6 time in Penn State outdoor track & field history.
Along with the success of the distance medley relay, Penn State qualified four more relays into tomorrow's finals.
The men's 4x100-meter relay (Xavier Smith, Dan Chisena, Malik Moffett, Anton Porter) punched their ticket to tomorrow's final clocking 40.65 in the one lap relay, the eighth-fastest time in preliminary action. Penn State boasts a season best time of 39.92 in the men's 4x100-meter relay set at the Pac-12 vs Big 10 Invitational.
Stepping up to the 4x200-meter relay, the same squad from the sprint relay returned to the track to lay down a time of 1:25.77 finishing fourth in the 800-meter relay prelims to qualify for tomorrow's final. PSU's time of 1:25.77 falls just short of breaking into the all-time top-10 list finishing just 21 one-hundredths of a second behind the quartet of Dennis Rock, Steve Hackman, Mike Shine, and Mike Sands who ran 1:25.56 back in 1975.
The final men's relay to qualify for tomorrow's final, the men's 4x400-meter relay, ran their way to the finals clocking a time of 3:11.56 during prelims.
Along with the three men's relays that will be featured in tomorrow's final, the women's 4x200-meter relay will also see action tomorrow as their time of 1:39.15 allows them to run in the ECAC final slated to run at 2:40 p.m. ET tomorrow afternoon.
Not to be out done by the events on the track, Jon Yohman had a career day of his own in the circle for the Nittany Lions setting a PR while leading Penn State to a three-peat in the men's shot put at Penn Relays.
Yohman, who set a huge PR along the way, won the event with his mark of 18.55m (60'-10.5") to become the third straight Nittany Lion to win the event follow back-to-back wins at Penn Relays by Darrell Hill in 2014 & 2015.
Penn State has now won four out of the last five shot put championships at the Penn Relays dating back to 2012.
David Lucas continued the success of the day with his win in the men's discus throw posting a mark of 55.03m (180'-6") to become the first Nittany Lion to win a discus event since Brian Milne in 1993.
Also collecting a win on the day was Sarah Stanley in the women's javelin throw posting a best throw of 44.86m to take the title as Penn State finished 1-3-6 in the event.
Penn State hit the track for the final day of competition at the Penn Relays starting tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. ET.
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