JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Penn State track & field team punched two tickets to the National Championships in Austin, Texas, on day one of the 2023 NCAA East Region Preliminaries.
"It was an excellent day one here in Jacksonville for Penn State track and field," said head coach John Gondak. "The team competed well, and obviously advancing Tyler Merkley to the hammer throw finals was outstanding. We're excited to have Luke Knipe in the pole vault move on to Austin, Texas, in the finals as well. A little bit of a heartbreak for [Lucciano Pizarro] in the shot put to finish unlucky 13, but he's had a great season and competed well. We're extremely excited to see four guys move through to the next round in the 800 and Evan [Dorenkamp] in the 1500. And everybody else that competed today that finished their season up—it was an outstanding year for them and I'm excited for their future in the Blue and White."
Tyler Merkley began the competition for the Nittany Lions on Wednesday morning as he advanced to the National Championships in the hammer throw for the third consecutive season. In the nightcap for Penn State, pole vaulter Luke Knipe punched his own ticket to Austin for the first time in his career. Knipe becomes the first male pole vaulter in school history, and second overall, to qualify for the championship meet.
Additionally, Penn State sent five track athletes to Friday's quarterfinals in their respective events. Evan Dorenkamp moved on in the 1500 and Olivier Desmeules, Handal Roban, Yukichi Ishii, and Darius Smallwood qualified in the 800. Both quarterfinal races will be held on Friday, May 26.
TRACK EVENT SUMMARY
In the Nittany Lions' first track event of the day, Dorenkamp took to the oval in the 1500. He finished fifth in his heat, going 3:46.35 to earn an automatic qualifying spot in Friday's quarterfinals.
Six Penn State athletes then competed in the 800, with four advancing to the quarterfinals. Desmeules finished with the fifth-best qualifying time, going 1:48.45 to earn an at-large qualifying time for Friday's quarterfinals. Roban finished second in his heat with a 1:48.99 to automatically move on. Ishii earned another automatic qualifying time, finishing fourth in his heat with a 1:49.74. Smallwood rounded out the Nittany Lions qualifiers, going 1:49.79 to earn an at-large bid to the quarterfinals.
FIELD EVENT SUMMARY
Merkley finished fifth place in the hammer throw, going 227-3 (70.41m) to qualify for the NCAA Championships. In the first of his two events on the day, Collin Burkhart finished 19th in the region with a 207-7 (63.28m) hammer throw.
Following the hammer throw, Burkhart went and competed in the javelin throw later in the afternoon. He finished 25th in the region with a 210-11 (64.30m) effort. Kevin Bartosh placed 31st in the competition with a 204-10 (62.43m) throw. The pair battled windy conditions in each of their three throws, concluding their seasons in a tough competition in Jacksonville.
In the shot put, Lucciano Pizarro finished just five centimeters shy of a trip to Austin, going 61-4.25 (18.70m) for 13th place in the competition, a heartbreaking end to an outstanding season for the junior. Dylan Lambrecht finished 31st in the region with a 58-4.5 (17.79m) throw and Duane Knisely posted a 57-7.75 (17.57m) for 35th.
Knipe closed out the night for the Nittany Lions, clearing a season-best 17-4.5 (5.30m) in the pole vault to punch his ticket to the National Championships. Knipe joins Hannah Mulhern (2017) as just the second Nittany Lion pole vaulter to ever qualify for the championship meet.
UP NEXT
The Penn State women will begin competition tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. with Jean Starr in the hammer throw competition.
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