GENEVA, Ohio – The Penn State track & field team earned six medals, set two school records, collected eight scoring performances, and qualified 17 athletes to event finals on day one of the Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Chloe Royce claimed the Nittany Lions' first conference title of 2024, earning her second career win in the pentathlon and becoming Penn State's first ever multi-time Big Ten pentathlon champion. Five additional Nittany Lion entries earned conference medals, including both the men's and women's DMR groups.
Penn State also qualified 17 members of its squad to various event finals tomorrow. The women's mile group lead the way with four Nittany Lions moving on while the men's 800-meters and men's 600-meters each will have three Penn State athletes in the finals.
Cheickna Traore became the first Nittany Lion ever to run sub-6.6 in the 60-meter dash with his school record-setting 6.59 in the prelims. Not to be outdone, Hayley Kitching also set a school record in a qualifier, as the sophomore went 1:28.02 in the 600-meter prelims. Both Traore and Kitching will compete in multiple Big Ten Championship finals tomorrow.
The Nittany Lion women are tied for first place in the conference with 38 points, recording six scoring finishes on day one of the championships. The men's team is ranked eighth with 10.5 points on a pair of day one scores.
SCORING FINISHES
Tesia Thomas started the scoring for the Nittany Lions with a seventh-place finish in the women's long jump. Thomas recorded a 19-10.75 (6.06m) best leap to earn two points.
Royce's pentathlon win earned 10 points for the Nittany Lions on Friday. Maddie Pitts finished right behind her teammate, earning six points with a pentathlon bronze medal. Pitts earned a career-best 3,985 points in her third-place finish. The multi-event tandem earned 16 combined points for the Penn State women in an outstanding showing.
Florence Caron (16:09.97) and Sophia Toti (16:11.82 PR) each set outstanding marks in a 2-3 finish in the women's 5K. Caron's run was her first indoor 5K in a Penn State uniform. The pair earned 14 total points for the women's team.
In the men's pole vault, Tristan McGarrah exploded for a 16-10 (5.13m) personal best clearance to finish tied for fourth in the conference. McGarrah's mark is the third-best in Penn State indoor history. Penn State's men's squad picked up 4.5 points from McGarrah's fantastic leap.
Penn State capped off its first night of competition with a pair of bronze medal finishes in the men's and womens' distance medley relay. The women's team of Makenna Krebs, Zoey Goldstein, Maddie Ullom, and Lea Hatcher ran an 11:15.02 to snag six points. The men's team of Evan Dorenkamp, James Onwuka, Luke Seymour, and Kevin Haas stopped the clock in 9:44.32 for their third-place finish.
FINALS QUALIFIERS
Five Penn State milers will compete in Saturday's event finals. Krebs (4:46.54), Kileigh Kane (4:46.56), and Ullom (4:46.59) all qualified for the women's finals out of heat one while Caron (4:44.21) did so out of heat two. Evan Dorenkamp's 4:12.86 earned him the win in his heat and an automatic qualifying spot to the men's mile finals.
Austin Gallant won his heat in the men's 400-meters in 47.14, booking his ticket to tomorrow's event finals.
Traore will compete in both the 60 and 200-meter finals tomorrow. His 60-meter school record of 6.59 and his 200-meter prelim time of 20.76 were both the second-fastest qualifying times.
Kitching will also compete in two event finals on Saturday. Her 2:03.59 800-meter time and her 1:28.02 school record-setting 600-meter mark were both the top overall times in the preliminary rounds. Handal Roban and Olivier Desmeules will also toe the line in both the men's 800-meter and 600-meter finals. Desmeules (1:48.56) and Roban (1:48.60) finished with the top two overall times in the 800 prelims while Roban (1:16.49) clocked the top time in the 600-meters with Desmeules (1:16.63) entering as the No. 2 qualifier.
Victoria Vanriele was the third-fastest qualifier in the women's 600-meters with a 1:29.36 and will race with Kitching in tomorrow's finals. Carter Fitzgerald (1:17.05) will join Roban and Desmeules in the 600-meter finals.
In the 800 prelims, Kaleb Nastari's 1:48.62 pushed him through to the finals as the third-fastest qualifier behind Desmeules and Roban.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions resume action in the conference championships tomorrow morning. With multiple titles on the line, Penn State aims to replicate its success on Saturday.
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