GENEVA, Ohio – Olivier Desmeules and Rachel Gearing earned Big Ten titles as the Penn State track & field team finished competition on day two of the 2023 Big Ten Indoor Championships on Saturday Feb. 25. The women's squad finished sixth overall with 61.5 team points while the men came in seventh, accumulating 51 points.
The Nittany Lions performed very well on day two of competition, with multiple season and personal-best marks and top-five program records being written in addition to the six medalists.
Gearing ran a 2:03.53 to capture the title in the women's 800m run and continue a string of seven consecutive Nittany Lion women who have taken home the Big Ten indoor title in the event. Not to be outdone, freshman teammate Hayley Kitching finished second in the event with a 2:03.70. Both women set personal records in the event, also setting the third and fourth-best times in Penn State history.
On the men's side, Desmeules, after finishing first in qualifying on Friday, won the finals with a 1:47.87. The sophomore edged out freshman teammate Handal Roban right at the finish line, winning the race by just a hundredth of a second. Darius Smallwood came in fourth place with a time of 1:48.02, just missing out on a 1-2-3 sweep in the finals for Penn State.
Faith DeMars followed up her Big Ten title-winning 5,000m win Friday evening with a runner-up finish in the 3,000m on Saturday. DeMars turned in a 9:17.71 to claim the silver medal in the event.
Smallwood, fresh off his 800m run earlier in the hour, posted a 1:16.31 to claim the bronze medal in the men's 600m finals, with teammate Callum Dodds posting a 1:16.69 to finish sixth.
Penn State finished with five fourth-place marks on the day as well. Coming just short of a medal, Kileigh Kane ran a 4:39.51 in the women's mile finals. Korbin Martino won his heat of the men's 400m but ultimately fell just seven hundredths of a second short of a third-place finish. Martino's 46.92 was the first sub-47 run by a Nittany Lion this season. Darius Smallwood's fourth-place finish in the 800m helped the Nittany Lions to a 23-point team score in the event, which stands as the second-highest team total on any one event in the competition. Mallory Kauffman's 55-1.25 (17.10m) effort in the shot put slotted her fourth in the competition as well. Finally, the men's 4x400m relay squad of Savion Hebron, James Onwuka, Desmeules, and Martino came just under a second short of a third-place finish with a 3:09.02 to close out the night for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State received additional points from Victoria Vanriele, who posted a 1:30.43 to finish seventh in the women's 600m run. Cecelia Bacon also finished seventh in the women's high jump with a 5-8.5 (1.74m) clearance. Drew Maher posted a 4:15.91 in the men's mile to finish eighth.
Michigan claimed the women's team title, scoring 109 points, while Wisconsin took home the men's championship with 110 points.
UP NEXT
Pending final qualifying marks, select Nittany Lions will travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 2023 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships on March 10 and 11.
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