UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State track & field team completed competition at the Penn State National Open on Saturday.
"I thought we had a fantastic weekend," Head Coach John Gondak said. "I'm really proud of the way the team competed. We've had two home meets in a row and I'm really happy with the performances over the past two weeks. The team put themselves in position to keep moving forward and put themselves in contention at the Big Ten Championships and a lot of people putting themselves in contention for the NCAAs."
Following a strong performance in the competition's first day on Friday, the Nittany Lions once again added several program all-time top five performances. A week after recording the top 1000m time in the NCAA in her collegiate debut, freshman Allison Johnson posted the second best mile time in Penn State history with a time of 4:37.44. The time ranks first in the Big Ten and fifth in the NCAA this season.
In the 800m, seniors Victoria Tachinski (2:06.31) and Rachel Gearing (2:06.77) recorded PRs to place first and second in the race. The times rank fourth and fifth in program history. They are the top two times in the Big Ten and both rank in the top ten nationally.
The women's distance group also found success in the 3000m run, with Faith DeMars leading the field with a PR of 9:26.24. She led a group of Nittany Lions setting PRs with Makenna Krebs, Jordan Williams and Sophia Toti finishing in the top five.
Yasmin Brooks followed her PR in the 60m hurdles on Friday by recording a PR of 24.58 in the 200m on Saturday.
The Penn State jumpers recorded three wins on Saturday, with Breanna Gambrell winning the long jump (5.98m), Cecelia Bacon winning the high jump (1.76m) and Hailey Zurich and Katie Jones sharing the win in the pole vault (4.09m).
On the men's side, Evan Dorenkamp added another victory to his resume, winning the 1000m at 2:21.23. Freshman Olivier Desmeules finished third in the race at 2:24.52 in his collegiate debut. Dorenkamp's time ranks fourth in program history.
Penn State took the top six spots in the men's 3000m, with Chris Hughes taking the top spot at 8:14.22.
The Nittany Lions will complete their three week homestand next weekend when the team hosts the Sykes Sabock Challenge at Penn State on Jan. 29.
Full Results: https://live.pttiming.com/?mid=4744
