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…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at Penn State Athletics…