JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Penn State track & field team competed in the first of two days of the Big Ten Florida Invite at the University of North Florida on Friday.
The Nittany Lions competed in 19 events on the day and saw several strong individual performances throughout the afternoon.
"We had a solid day today here in Jacksonville," Head Coach John Gondak said. "It was a challenge with the wind gusting as much as it was – we actually moved the Pole Vault to Saturday because the wind was so challenging. We had a lot of athletes step up to the challenge and perform well under the conditions. I am excited to see more compete in day two tomorrow"
Yasmin Brooks claimed the team's first victory of the day in the 100-meter hurdles, posting a time of 13.55 to advance to Saturday's final. She will be joined by teammate Ekaterina Hupalo who recorded a 13.99 to place fourth. In the 400-meter hurdles, Antoinette Bradley placed third with a time of 1:00.54, a three-second improvement from her time in last weekend's meet.
In her first appearance in the 1500 this season, senior Danae Rivers claimed another victory with a time of 4:16.35. Entering the weekend, the fastest time in the NCAA was a 4:16.40.
The team saw two strong performances in the women's long jump, as Audra Koopman recorded a new outdoor personal best of 6.04m to place third and Breanna Gambrell placed fourth in the women's long jump invite with a 6.01m jump.
On the men's side, the highlight of the day came from the team's throwers. First, freshman Henry Zimmerman continued his strong start to his outdoor career with his second consecutive win in the hammer throw. His 60.08m (197-01) throw set a new outdoor PR. In the hammer throw invite, Tyler Merkley jumped onto the Big Ten leaderboards with the conference's second-best throw of the year with a 64.08m (210-00) throw.
In the men's shot put, freshman Lucciano Pizarro (17.05m, 55-11.25) and junior Tom Bojalad (16.90m, 55-05.50) recorded outdoor personal bests to place third and fourth. Senior Ben Peterson narrowly missed a PR of his own in the shot put invite, placing fourth with a throw of 18.24m (59-10.25).
On the track, Brandon Hontz returned to the 1500 for the first time since 2019 and had the best performance of the day for the Nittany Lions, running 3:50.20.
Competition will continue on Saturday beginning with the men's discus throw at 8:30 a.m. Track events are scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.