MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Penn State track and field team continued their strong weekend at the Big Ten Championships on Saturday as seven student-athletes score points, and seven others qualify for their event finals on Sunday.
After the second day of competition, the women's team ranks third with 40.5 points after nine completed events. The men's team ranks eighth with 14 points after six completed events.
Chloe Royce began the second day by wrapping up the heptathlon with a new personal-best points total of 5,152. She finished in fifth place and scored the first four points on the day for Penn State. She scored 801 points in long jump, 349 points in javelin with a career-best throw of 23.20m (76-1) and 882 points in the 800 meters to conclude the two-day event.
The women's team saw numerous field athletes score throughout the day. In the women's long jump, the duo of Breana Gambrell and Chloe Royce combined for four points. Gambrell earned a sixth-place finish and scored three points with a jump of 5.99m (19-8). Placing behind her was Royce who came out in eighth to tack on another point with her mark of 5.84m (19-2).
Cecelia Bacon came in fourth place in women's high jump after clearing a height of 1.76m (5-9.25) to score five points.
Women's discus saw Mallory Kauffman reach an eighth-place finish and scored one point with her throw of 53.04m (174-0).
On the track, multiple Nittany Lions qualified for the Sunday finals after running fast races in the preliminary round.
On the men's side, Korbin Martino qualified for the 400-meter dash finals after clocking a time of 46.88. The 100-meter sprints saw Ka'mere Day qualify for Sunday with a wind-aided time of 10.34 (+3.2)
Yasmin Brooks qualified for her second finals of the weekend in the women's 100-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 13.24 to win her heat and earning an automatic bid.
The 800-meter group saw Victoria Tachinski and Rachel Gearing both earn qualifying spots for the women's final after the two won their respective heats with times of 2:07.73 and 2:08.96.
The men's team had Domenic Perretta and Olivier Desmeules qualify for Sunday after they won their heats with times of 1:50.78 and 1:49.81, respectively.
Closing out the day, Penn State saw three total student-athletes score points in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Faith DeMars placed sixth to score three points and Makenna Krebs placed eighth to score one point for the women's team. Connor McMenamin placed fifth to score four points in the men's race.
The Big Ten Championship will conclude tomorrow beginning with the women's triple jump at noon EST.
