Track & Field Finishes Strong on Final Day of Big Ten Outdoor Championships

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Penn State track & field team concluded the Big Championships with both the men’s and women’s groups placing inside the top six in the conference.
 
The women finished their weekend in fifth place with 63 team points, highlighted by Faith DeMars’ incredible championship-winning run in the 5,000-meters. Her outdoor win is the first time a Nittany Lion woman has ever won the 5,000-meters at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and it is the first outdoor title in the event by any Nittany Lion since Bob Hamer in 1994. Michigan took the overall championship on the women’s side with 139 total points, followed by Ohio State (123), and Nebraska (112).
 
Penn State’s men’s squad came in sixth overall with 54 team points, the group’s best standing at the Big Ten outdoor meet since 2018. Nebraska’s men finished in the top spot with 151 total points, with Minnesota (122) and Iowa (120) rounding out the top three.
 
PENN STATE’S POINT-SCORERS
 
The Nittany Lion women received scoring all over the board on Sunday. The 4×100-meter relay squad got on the board with three points, followed by Maddie Ullom’s bronze medal finish in the 1500. Mallory Kauffman posted her second point-scoring effort of the weekend in the women’s discus, and Carlie Wilson picked up a pair in the women’s high jump. Rachel Gearing, Hayley Kitching, and Allison Johnson earned 19 total points in the 800, DeMars and Sophia Toti collected 12 total in the 5K, and the 4×400 snagged one point at the end of the day for the women’s group.
 
For the men, Evan Dorenkamp and Yukichi Ishii combined for ten points in the men’s 1500 to start things off on the track. Handal Roban, Darius Smallwood, and Callum Dodds combined for 12 in the men’s 800, and the 4×400 finished the day scoring six points.
 
TRACK EVENT SUMMARY
 
In the Nittany Lions’ first track event of the day, the Nittany Lions’ group of Zoey Goldstein, Maddie Pitts, Jane Madson, and Lauren Princz posted a Penn State season-best 45.50 in the 4×100-meter relay. Including each event of the heptathlon plus the long jump, this race marked Pitts’ ninth event of the weekend.
 
Following the opening relay, Dorenkamp finished with the silver medal in the men’s 1500 with a 3:43.06. Dorenkamp’s final kick pushed him over the line in second place. Ishii finished just under three seconds behind…