COLUMBUS, Ohio. – On a day with limited competition, the Penn State track & field team made its mark in the first of two days of the Jesse Owens Invitational at Ohio State on Friday.
With a majority of the meet's events scheduled for Saturday, the Nittany Lions made the most of the day's eight events, claiming four victories.
"It was great to see Penn State win four events today and have a second place finish in another," Head Coach John Gondak said. "Overall we competed really well in challenging conditions, the wind was gusting up to 40 miles per hour which affects all of the events – and to have multiple personal bests shows that we are peaking at the right time of the season. The staff is excited to see the rest of the travel group compete tomorrow wearing the pink and black uniforms and work to bring home some more wins and personal bests here in Columbus."
For the second week in a row, Tyler Merkley set a personal best in the men's hammer throw, winning the event with a career-best 66.79m (219-1) throw. After recording the third best throw in program history a week ago, Merkley jumped up to second on the list this week, besting Alvin Jackson's 66.60m throw from 1976. The Nittany Lions took the top three spots in the event, with Henry Zimmerman setting a personal best of his own (60.79m, 199-5) to place second and David Lucas placing third with a throw of 59.01m (193-7).
Penn State took the top two spots in the men's javelin throw, with Keivn Bartosh placing first with a throw of 64.74m (212-5) and Chris Fredericks finishing second with a throw of 64.17m (210-6). On the women's side, Madison Smith continued her strong year with a win in the women's javelin throw (48.19m, 158-1). Gianna Rao set a personal best of her own with a 60.24m (197-7) throw to place second in the women's hammer throw.
On the track, Nittany Lions took the top two spots in the women's 400m hurdles with Antoinette Bradley placing first with a time of 1:00.67 and Yasmin Brooks placing second in her first collegiate appearance in the event with a time of 1:00.84.
Saturday's events are scheduled to begin on the track with the women's 1500m run at 10:50 a.m. Field events begin shortly after with three events scheduled for 11 a.m.