Photo Gallery May 12, 2017
RESULTS
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Four Nittany Lions captured medals on the opening day of the Big Ten Championships at the Nittany Lion Outdoor Track with Penn State currently holding the team lead on the men's side and a third-place standing on the women's side.
Day one started with the heptathlon and decathlons and Penn State's Madeline Holmberg made a statement with her first day of events.
The sophomore strung together four events to finish with the first-day lead totaling 3,354-points.
Holmberg ran 13.70 in the 100-meter hurdles - the No. 7 time in program history - followed by a clearance of 4'-10.50" (1.49m) in high jump, a heptathlon school record 42'-6.25" (12.96m) in the shot put and a blazing time of 23.82 that ties the No. 10 time in program history matching the mark of Debbie Lewis from 1980. Holmberg won three of the four events on day one.
Penn State put together 29-points between the hammer throw and the javelin throw that featured a 1-6-7 finish in the hammer and a 2-4-6 finish in the javelin.
Morgan Shigo led the hammer group with his second-place finish in the event posting a school record mark of 222'-11" (67.94m), extending his record mark from earlier this season.
Following Shigo in the event were David Lucas in sixth-place at 208'-2" (63.44m) - the No. 3 mark all-time at Penn State - and Kory Decesaris in seventh-place at 205'-10" (62.75m) - the No. 4 mark in program history.
In the javelin, school record holder Michael Shuey brought home silver with his throw of 240'-7" (73.35m) followed by teammates Michael Biddle in fourth-place at 235'-7" (71.81m) - No. 4 in program history - and Ryan Kerr in sixth-place at 226'-10" (69.14m).
Vaulters Hannah Mulhern and Lexi Masterson tied for sixth-place in the event both clearing identical bars of 12'-8.75" (3.88m).
Xavier Smith and Malik Moffett advanced through to Sunday's final in the men's 200-meters earning the auto-qualifying spots by finishing in the top-two of their heats with Smith winning his heat (20.97) and Moffett taking second in 21.11 during the second prelim heat.
Keianna Albury advanced on time to Sunday's final in the 200-meters as she tied the No. 10 time in program history running 23.85.
Danae Rivers and Julie Kocjancic will run in the 1,500-meter finals after advancing with second and third-place finishes in the prelims with times of 4:23.12 and 4:30.07, respectively.
In the final event of the day Penn State had two Nittany Lions grab silver medals as Timothy McGowan and Jillian Hunsberger traversed the 25-lap race.
Hunsberger and teammate Kathryn Munks, a true freshman, battled it out to finish second and fifth running times of 33:55.55 and 34:05.28, respectively.
In the men's 10K it was the McGowan brothers who turned in second and sixth-place finishes. Timothy McGowan crossed the line in 29:38.64 while his brother John McGowan ran a tie of 29:49.15 in the event helping score a combined 11-points to the Nittany Lion total.
Day two of the Big Ten Championships will get underway tomorrow starting at 9:30 a.m. with the decathlon 110-meter hurdles.
For more on Nittany Lion track & field, log onto www.GoPSUsports.com or follow the team on Twitter @PennStateTFXC.