JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two members of the Penn State men's track & field team advanced to the NCAA Championship on the first day of the NCAA East Preliminaries on Wednesday at the University of North Florida.
In the first competition of the day, Mark Porter placed 11th in the men's javelin with a throw of 70.22m (230-4) to advance to the NCAA Championship finals. It will be Porter's second trip to the finals after qualifying in 2019. Also advancing to the finals is Tyler Merkley, who placed fifth in the men's hammer throw with a top toss of 67.47m (221-4). This will mark Merkley's first NCAA Championship appearance.
The pair will join multi-event athletes Maddie Holmberg and Noah Swaby, who automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship in the heptathlon and decathlon, respectively.
"I am excited that we punched two more tickets to Eugene this afternoon," Head Coach John Gondak said. "I thought our student-athletes competed very well in the first round of the NCAA Championship meets today."
Freshmen Chris Fredericks and Kevin Bartosh capped of strong first years at Penn State with a solid showing in their first NCAA Regional meets. Fredericks closed out his season with a throw of 66.92m (219-7) to place 17th while Bartosh recorded a throw of 63.38m (207-11) to place 31st.
Ben Peterson added another big throw to his successful season in the shot put, finishing his year with a toss of 17.87m (57-7.5).
On the track, Evan Dorenkamp placed third in his heat of the 800m run with a time of 1:51.08 to advance to the quarterfinals on Friday. In his first NCAA Regional appearance, Sincere Rhea narrowly missed advancing to the quarterfinals in the 110h, placing fifth in his heat with a time of 14.01.
"The future looks very bright for the Nittany Lions," Gondak said. "Of the 11 athletes we had compete today, seven were freshmen. We are looking forward to seeing the women compete tomorrow."
The Penn State women will take the stage on Thursday beginning with Gianna Rao in the women's hammer throw and Madison Smith in the women's javelin at 1:30 p.m. Like Wednesday, the top 12 finishers in field competition will advance to the NCAA Championships. All track events other than the 10,000m run will be first round matchups with the chance to advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday.