BATON ROUGE, La. – The Penn State track & field team finished the Lloyd Willis Invitational, hosted by LSU on Saturday, April 8, with seven event wins, six top-ten marks in program history, and multiple top-ten marks in the country.
"Penn State Track & Field continues to perform at a high level," said head coach John Gondak. "We had a lot of event wins and personal bests today that rank inside the top 20 of the NCAA and top 10 in the Big Ten. Our throws group had an outstanding meet, and all other areas keep improving week in and week out. We are looking forward to keeping the momentum going as we head into the second half of the season."
Rain in North Carolina prevented the Nittany Lions from competing at the Duke invitational on Friday evening, but the squad in Louisiana performed incredibly well on Saturday afternoon.
Jean Starr, Collin Burkhart (twice), Mallory Kauffman, Allison Johnson, and Handal Roban all entered the Penn State record books at LSU. Starr, Burkhart (in the javelin), and Roban each recorded a Penn State outdoor top-ten mark for the first time in their respective events.
Penn State's throws group recorded five of the Nittany Lions' seven event wins on the afternoon, highlighted by meet-record efforts from Merkley in the hammer throw and Kauffman in the shot put. Additionally, Burkhart's outstanding afternoon resulted in him becoming the only Nittany Lion on the school's top ten list in both the hammer and javelin throws.
The track squad closed out competition with two additional event wins, including freshman indoor All-American Roban's return to the NCAA top five in the 800-meter run.
EVENT SUMMARY
Field Events
The Nittany Lions began competition with three-straight top-ten marks in school history in the throwing events. Starr (186-4 (56.81m)) and Burkhart (214-8 (65.43m)) in the hammer throw, along with Kauffman (56-2 (17.12m)) in the shot put, improved on their personal best marks that landed each of them inside the top-ten all time at Penn State.
Merkley's 236-11 (72.21m) season-best effort in the hammer throw solidified his No. 6 mark in the NCAA this season and also set the Lloyd Willis Invitational meet record. The graduate student finished third overall in the discus throw as well, posting a 169-04 (51.62m) throw.
Kauffman, in her second event of the afternoon, also finished third in the discus throw, recording a 157-9 (48.08m). The throws group continued to dominate, this time with a 2-4-5 finish in the men's shot put. Lucciano Pizarro finished as the runner-up with a 59-4.75 (18.10m) throw, followed by Duane Knisely (56-10 (17.32m)) in fourth and Dylan Lambrecht (55-2.75 (16.83m)) in fifth.
Chloe Royce posted a 19-9.5 (6.03m) personal-best mark to claim second place in the competition, with freshman multi-event athlete Maddie Pitts recording a 18-4.25 (5.59m) leap to finish fifth.
Burkhart posted the 10th-best javelin throw in Penn State history with a 230-5 (70.23m) effort in his final throw of the afternoon. The Nittany Lion sophomore became the only member of both of Penn State's top-ten lists in both the hammer and javelin throws with his performance this afternoon. Not to be outdone, Kevin Bartosh also posted a season-best effort in the javelin throw, finishing second place with a 219-10 (67.02m) throw. Freshman Audrey Friedman carried the momentum into the women's javelin throw, earning her second-consecutive event win with a 144-8 (44.11m) throw.
Track Events
On the track, Jane Madson set a new personal-best time in the 400m, stopping the clock at 55.39 to finish fourth place. For the men, James Onwuka clocked a 47.05 for a fourth-place finish, followed by freshman Austin Gallant with a personal-best 48.18 in ninth place.
In the women's 800m, Rachel Gearing ran a season-best 2:03.64 to finish third, with Hayley Kitching in fifth at 2:04.44 and Allison Johnson in seventh with an outdoor PR of 2:05.21. Johnson's mark improves her own No. 9 mark in Penn State history.
Roban, in the men's 800m, won the event with an outdoor season-best 1:47.29, tying Domenic Peretta for 10th all-time in Penn State history and slotting in at No. 4 in the NCAA in the event. Big Ten indoor 800m champ Olivier Desmeules returned to form, posting a 1:48.41 to finish second. With a 1:49.03, Carter Fitzgerald came in fourth place while Darius Smallwood's 1:49.71 earned him sixth place.
In the men's 200m, the Nittany Lions earned two top-ten finishes, with Savion Hebron clocking a 21.49 to finish sixth and Korbin Martino running a 21.75 to come in 10th.
In the 4x400s to finish out the competition, the Penn State women earned the victory with a 3:41.44 and the men finished in second place, stopping the clock at 3:08.85.
UP NEXT
Penn State will stay close to home next weekend, traveling down the road to Bucknell for the Bison Outdoor Classic from April 14-16.
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