NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Penn State track & field team closed out the Dr. Sander Invitational in New York with a strong showing on Saturday.
The Penn State women finished atop the scoreboard with 116 total points and the men placed third with 69 points.
Several Nittany Lions set PRs throughout the day, beginning with Chloe Royce's career best performance in the pentathlon. Royce set personal bests in four out of five events, posting the fifth best pentathlon score in Penn State history with a 3985.
Tesia Thomas followed her PR in the long jump on Friday with another career best performance in the triple jump, placing second with a mark of 12.46m. Teammate Breana Gambrell placed third with a season best 12.45m jump.
Penn State also had success in the women's mile, with Faith DeMars (4:45.70) and Alison Willingmyre (4:49.98) setting PRs in the race. The middle distance group also saw a strong showing from Madaline Ullom, who placed fourth in the 800m with a time of 2:07.08.
Katie Jones added another victory to her season in the pole vault, following her program record setting performance from a week ago with another 4+ meter vault for the win. Also adding a victory to her resume was Gianna Rao, who placed first in the weight throw with a top throw of 20.40m.
On the men's side several Penn State freshmen continued to impress. Korbin Martino opened the day with a second place finish in the 400m (47.39) and later placed fourth in the 200m (21.72). Olivier Desmeules (1:51.63) and Darius Smallwood (1:52.07) placed second and fourth in the 800m respectively.
The freshman trio and junior Savion Hebron teamed up to close out the meet with a victory in the 4x400m relay. Their time of 3:13.66 was Penn State's best of the season.
Thrower Tyler Merkley continued his strong senior campaign with a second place finish in the men's weight throw (21.20m). He has recorded throws of 21.20+ meters in back-to-back meets.
The Nittany Lions will be back on the road next weekend for split squad meets at Vanderbilt and Boston University on Feb. 11 and 12.
FULL RESULTS: https://results.armorytrack.com/meets/11201
