Hayward FieldEugene, Ore.
Friday, April 9
Results
MEET PREVIEW
| TEAMS COMPETING | |
| Oregon | Penn State |
| USC | Washington |
April 9, 2016
EUGENE, Ore. - The Penn State track & field teams wrapped up the Pepsi Invitational hosted by the University of Oregon with 10 event winners between the teams as the No. 17 Penn State men's team tied No. 2 Oregon with 181.5 points and the women's team finished seven points behind No. 6 Oregon with 166 points to take second.
"I was really proud of the way both programs competed today," said head coach John Gondak.
"We had a focus of coming to this meet and competing as compared to a focus on time or distance and it really showed with how the team performed today. They wore their Penn State Uniforms with pride today at Hayward Field."
"When we were invited to this meet a year and a half ago I thought it would be a great opportunity for our student-athletes to compete at an incredible facility and against some great teams! We stressed to them to take advantage of this opportunity and they really did that this weekend."
"This meet included three of the best teams in the NCAA for track & field with Washington, Southern Cal and Oregon. We knew it would be an amazing competition, but for both the men's and the women's meet to come down to the 4x400 relay to decide the team champions is what track & field is all about."
Rachel Fatherly took the women's hammer event with her mark of 55.51m (182'-1") on her second throw of the competition. Alyssa Robinson finished the event in sixth-place recording a throw of 51.61m (169'-4").
Fatherly would return to compete again, this time in the discus throw recording a best throw of 48.22m (158'-2") and in the shot put where the senior from Williamsport, Pa. took the event title - her second of the day - with a toss of 16.50m (54'-1"). Robinson claimed a top-three finish in the same event with her mark of 16.07m (52'8") to take third-place.
David Lucas recorded a top-three finish in the men's discus throw launching a mark of 51.54m (169'-1") to take second-place. Jon Yohman scored in the event as well with his fifth-place finish with a best throw of 49.44m (162'-2").
Morgan Shigo and Kory Decesaris held it down in the hammer throw finishing second and third in the event with best heaves of 59.20m (194'-2") and 57.43m (188'-5"), respectively.
In the women's javelin throw it was All-American Lauren Kenney leading the way as Penn State swept the event finishing 1-2-3 behind the efforts of Kenney, Natalie Shiffler, and Sarah Stanley who posted throws of 48.90m (160'-5"), 44.66m (144'-6"), and 44.38m (145'-7"), respectively.
Penn State once again used team work to score big points in the women's pole vault with Kasey Kemp (2nd), Hannah Mulhern (3rd), and Megan Fry (5th) claiming three of the top-five spots.
Megan McCloskey (high jump), Brian Leap (triple jump) and Dannielle Gibson (triple jump) each earned individual event crowns on the day in their respective events.
True freshman Chisom Ifedi cleared 2.14m (7'-0.25") to take second in the men's high jump while Devin Bradham (2.06m/6'9") finished fifth.
Ean DiSilvio and John Dugan took second and fourth-place, respectively, in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase running times of 8:58.88 and 9:15.40 as both athletes set new personal best along the way.
The men's 4x100-meter relay of Xavier Smith, Dan Chisena, Malik Moffett, and Anton Porter combined to run 40.51 and take second in the event trailing only Oregon (40.06) to start the day off.
The sprint events saw Xavier Smith sweep the 100-meters and 200-meters in times of 10.61 and 20.96 - a personal best -with teammates Dan Chisena in the 100-meters (10.67) and Malik Moffett in the 200-meters (21.27) backing him up with second-place finishes.
Sarah Jane Underwood ran 2:09.39 in the 800-meters to take fourth, while on the men's side Brannon Kidder and Isaiah Harris ran their way to a 1-2 finish in the event clocking times of 1:47.40 and 1:47.87.
Kidders time of 1:47.40 set a new Pepsi Invitational meet record for the senior All-American from Lancaster, Ohio.
Robby Creese led a group of Nittany Lions in the 1,500-meters as he finished second in a time of 3:42.29 less than a second behind Washington's Izaic Yorks won the event in a time of 3:41.56. Colin Abert (3:47.70) and Wade Endress (3:47.85) took sixth and seventh, respectively.
The women's 5K featured cross country All-American redshirt-freshman Tessa Barrett who finished second in a time of 16:06.19 followed closely by teammate Jillian Hunsberger in fourth (16:25.13).
Quenee Dale set a new lifetime best in the 100-meter hurdles with her time of 13.75 to take fourth-place while teammate Madeline Holmberg grabbed sixth-place in 14.41 to set a new personal best as well.
David Marrington finished fifth in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles posting a season best time of 55.24 in the event.
Ean DiSilvio and John Dugan teamed up to set personal best times in the 3,000-meter steeplechase finishing second and fourth in 8:58.88 and 9:15.40, respectively.
In the final event of the day the quartet of Dan Chisena, Alex Shisler, Samuel Reiser, and Isaiah Harris paced the field to a winning time of 3:08.86 to end the day in a tie with the defending indoor and outdoor No. 2 Oregon Ducks totaling 181.5 points on the day.
Penn State will split squads between Austin, Texas and Lewisburg, Pa. as the Nittany Lions compete at the Texas Invitational and the Bucknell Classic on April 16-17.