DeMars Earns Bronze on Day Two of Big Ten Championships

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Penn State track & field team concluded day two of the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with a third-place finish by Faith DeMars in the women’s steeplechase.
 
The women’s squad produced four top-eight finishers on day two of competition.  In addition to DeMars’ steeplechase bronze, freshman Maddie Pitts concluded her outing in the heptathlon with a fourth-place standing. Mallory Kauffman posted a school record in the women’s shot put, earning fifth place in the conference. Tesia Thomas rounded out the scorers on day two with an eighth-place finish in the women’s long jump.
 
On the men’s side, Lucciano Pizarro posted a fourth-place finish with a PR in the men’s shot put and Luke Knipe, the program record-holder in the pole vault, set a personal-best mark to finish eighth in the conference in the long jump.
 
Penn State also qualified six athletes for tomorrow’s championship track events. In the men’s 800-meter run, Handal Roban, Callum Dodds, and Darius Smallwood each moved on with qualifying marks. For the women, Rachel Gearing, Hayley Kitching, and Allison Johnson will compete in tomorrow’s final round.
 
The men’s squad is tied for fifth place with Iowa (26 points) and the women’s group is tied for sixth with Ohio State (19 points) heading into championship Sunday.
 
TRACK EVENT SUMMARY
 
Penn State started out on the track with the preliminary round of the men’s 400-meter run. The Nittany Lions’ top two finishers, Austin Gallant (47.52) and Carter Fitzgerald (47.85 PR), both competed in their first Big Ten Outdoor Championships and posted solid marks in the prelims. For the women, Zoey Goldstein set a season-best mark with a 55.35 to finish 14^th overall, and Jane Madson came in 17^th with a 55.43.
 
In the 800-meter run, Penn state qualified three on the men’s side. Dodds (1:48.26 Q), Roban (1:48.30 q), and Smallwood (1:50.21 Q) all will compete in tomorrow’s finals. Olivier Desmeules ran a 1:50.18, finishing just shy of a qualifying mark. For the women, Kitching (2:06.15 Q), Johnson (2:06.68q), and Gearing (2:06.91 Q) will go tomorrow afternoon in the finals. Teammate Victoria Vanriele posted a 2:09.13 for a 15^th-place finish.
 
In the final track event of the evening, DeMars clocked a 10:14.01 in the steeplechase to earn a bronze medal, the Nittany Lions second top-three finish of the…