Nationally-Ranked Track & Field Has Strong Outing at Lloyd Willis Invitational

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,…