Track & Field Qualifies Nine Entries for NCAA Indoor ChampionshipsTrack & Field Qualifies Nine Entries for NCAA Indoor Championships
Scottland Dean

Track & Field Qualifies Nine Entries for NCAA Indoor Championships

Nittany Lions to conclude historic indoor season at NCAAs

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State track & field has qualified nine entries into the 2025 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, as announced by the association Tuesday night. This season’s NCAA indoor meet is slated to take place March 14 and 15 at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Three 800-meter stars highlight the men’s contingent, along with a pair of breakout freshman sprinters. Veterans Darius Smallwood, Yukichi Ishii, and Olivier Desmeules will contend the 800-meters while superstar freshman Ajani Dwyer will go in both the 60 and 200-meters. Upstart newcomer Jake Palermo will run in the 400-meter dash as the fastest freshman in the country in his event and the only Nittany Lion ever to run sub-46 indoors.

For the Nittany Lion women, it will be middle-distance stalwart Hayley Kitching leading the way as Penn State’s 800-meter representative. Fellow outdoor All-American Florence Caron will join her for the women’s team and run the 5K. Multi-event athlete Maddie Pitts will make her first appearance at an NCAA Championship event as the ninth-ranked pentathlete in the nation this season.

QUALIFYING MARKS

Men

Ajani Dwyer

  • 60m – 6.54 – No. 6
  • 200m – 20.65 – No. 14

Jake Palermo

  • 400m – 45.65 – No. 9

Darius Smallwood

  • 800m – 1:46.28 – No. 5

Yukichi Ishii

  • 800m – 1:46.41 – No. 8

Olivier Desmeules

  • 800m – 1:46.52 – No. 13

Women

Hayley Kitching

  • 800m – 2:01.14 – No. 7

Florence Caron

  • 5K – 15:25.83 – No. 13

Maddie Pitts

  • Pentathlon – 4,229 – No. 9

Above marks listed (event – time/point total – rank within accepted field)

RECORD-BREAKING SEASON

Of Penn State’s eight athletes who have qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships, four have set school records in their events this season to get there.

For the men, Dwyer tied All-American Cheickna Traore’s 60-meter record with a 6.54 and Palermo obliterated the Nittany Lion indoor 400m mark as the first Penn State athlete under 46 seconds, both athletes doing so as 18-year-old freshmen. On the women’s side, Kitching lowered her own Penn State best mark to 2:01.14 while Caron smashed the eight-year-old school 5K record by over three seconds.

Penn State qualifies three men’s 800-meter runners to the indoor NCAA Championship meet for the first time since 2010 while Pitts becomes the first pentathlete to qualify for the NCAA indoor meet since school record holder Maddie Nickal (Holmberg).

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