March 26, 2017
DAY TWO RESULTS
TEAM SCORES
TEMPE, Ariz. - A solid day two in the desert from the Nittany Lions led to second-place finishes from each squad as the Big Ten won both the men's and women's conference vs. conference meet title's at the 2017 PAC-12/Big Ten Challenge.
David Lucas got things going for the Nittany Lions as he finished third in the discus recording a days best of 188'1.75" (57.35m). Lucas, a 2016 Second-Team All-American in the event, recorded the bronze medal mark on his final throw of the prelims.
Obeng Marfo posted a sixth-place finish in the women's discus, finishing competition with a best of 160'-7" (48.95m).
Also competing in the discus were Jon Yohman in 16th-place with a mark of 160'-3.50" (48.86m) and Robert Cardina in 21st-place throwing 136'-7.25" (41.64m).
In the men's pole vault, Patrick Anderson finished fourth clearing 15'-7.75" (4.77m), while Lexi Masterson was the top finisher for Penn State on the women's side with a best of 12'-8.25" (3.87m).
Megan McCloskey took silver in the women's high jump with her clearance of 5'-8.75" (1.75m) to add eight-points to the Lions total.
Alyssa Robinson finished second with a mark of 53'-5.50" (16.30m) in the women's shot put with Obeng Marfo in fifth at 50'-11.25" (15.53m).
Jon Yohman (58'-2"/17.73m) and David Lucas (57'-5.25/17.51m) finished seventh and eighth in the men's shot put, respectively.
Penn State finished 1-2-4 in the women's long jump behind the efforts of Madeline Holmberg (19'-9.75"/6.04m), Dannielle Gibson (19'-2.50"/5.86m) and Kelsey Vieria who finished the day with a best of 18'-8" (5.69m).
Penn State placed three in the top-eight of the men's triple jump led by State College native Bryce Williams in second-place who finished with a best of 50'-7.75" (15.44m), followed by Darian Alston in sixth at 47'-10.75" (14.60m) and finally Kobren Frederick who had a best of 47'-8.75" (14.55m).
For the women it was a 1-3-5-8 finish in the event as Dannielle Gibson (41'-9.50"/12.74m), Kaitlyn Lopez (39'-3.50"/11.98m), Kelsey Vieira (38'-5.75"/11.73m) and Olivia Giambra (37'-4.75"/11.40m) combined to score 20-points in the triple jump.
Quenee Dale grabbed a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles running a time of 14.24 seconds to bring home five points for the Blue & White.
The men's 4x100-meter relay turned in a near school record performance running the No. 2 time in program history at 39.65.
Karson Kowalchuk, Dan Chisena, Xavier Smith and Malik Moffett combined to run just .02 seconds off the school record of 39.63 that was set back in 1975 by Jack Davis, Steve Hackman, Mike Shine and Mike Sands.
The time currently ranks at the No. 5 time in the NCAA.
The women's 4x100-meter relay finished second in a time of 45.22 seconds as Deja Davis, Keianna Albury, Quenee Dale and Kiara Lester combined on the exchanges.
Tori Gerlach made her 2017 debut in winning fashion, taking the event title in the women's 1,500-meters running 4:25.63 for the win in the opening heat of the event. Gerlach used a strong finish over the final 400-meters to secure her spot.
The men's 400-meters saw two Nittany Lions turn in personal best marks as Dan Chisena (47.34) and Tyreek Mathis (47.70) finished fourth and 10th, respectively.
Xavier Smith ran a wind-legal personal best of 10.47 in the 100-meters winning the event but was also joined by teammates Malik Moffett (10.63) in third and Karson Kowalchuk (10.78) in fourth, respectively.
Both Moffett and Kowalchuk times were personal best as well.
Keianna Albury was the top-finisher for the Blue and White in the women's 100-meters running a time of 11.65 taking the event by over two-tenths of a second from the next closest competitor. Albury's time was a new PR for the sophomore from Nassau, Bahamas.
Domenic Perretta took the men's 800-meters with his run of 1:49.10, breaking away from the pack with 300-meters and outlasting the field to the line for the win. Jordan Makins also scored in the event running 1:51.07 for seventh-place.
Rachael DeCecco recorded a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles running 1:00.91 followed closely by teammate Elyse Skerpon in fifth-place at 1:02.13.
Moffett returned in the 200-meters, finishing second in a time of 21.07, just one one-hundredth of a second off the wining time of 21.06. Smith finished sixth in 21.29 while Kowalchuk took 10th in a personal best time of 21.80 seconds.
For the women's 200-meters, it was Albury turning in the Nittany Lions highest finish as she raced her way to a third-pace finish ruining 23.91.
Penn State will split between two meets next week as part of the team will hit the west coast for the Stanford Invite while another group of athletes will travel to Gainesville, Fla. for the Florida Relays with both meets taking place Mar. 31-Apr. 1.
For more on Nittany Lion track & field, log onto www.GoPSUsports.com or follow the team on Twitter @PennStateTFXC.