Senior distance runner Kileigh Kane runs during the 2024 NCAA East First Round in Lexington, KY. Courtesy of Matt Rudisill | Penn State Athletics

After a long regular season, the much-anticipated postseason has arrived for Penn State track and field.

The three-day event kicked off in Eugene, Oregon on Friday, as the Nittany Lions worked to become one of the top-48 athletes in each event to participate in the NCAA East First Round, with the hope of winning some Big Ten hardware along the way.

Day 1 kicked off with the heptathlon, many preliminary track events and final field events. Saturday capped off the heptathlon and prelim track events, while Sunday wrapped up each event in the finals.

Day 1

Graduate student Nathan Williams kicked off the Big Ten championship for Penn State in the men’s hammer throw, where advanced to the finals.

Williams finished in ninth place with a throw of 65.91 meters.

Senior Collin Burkhart threw for 64 meters, but was just shy of a finals appearance, finishing in 12th place.

Following the men’s hammer, junior Maddie Pitts began her quest for her fourth straight Big Ten medal, running the heptathlon 100-meter hurdles. Pitts started off on the wrong foot with a 14.96-second 18th place finish.

In front of Pitts was Nittany Lion Madeleine Soderqvist with a personal-best 14.40 for 13th place.

However, Pitts earned immediate redemption in the high jump, jumping a personal-best 1.72 for third place, moving her into 11th overall.

Soderqvist finished in last place with a jump of 1.48 to move to 18th overall.

A trio of Penn Staters took the field for the men’s pole vault, but only two recorded heights, as freshman Mason Bucks failed to record a height.

Meanwhile, junior Tristan McGarrah finished in 12th with a height of 5.09 meters and senior Jonathan Petersen reached 4.94 meters for 16th place.

By mid-afternoon the two multi-event athletes had finished their third event of the heptathlon as they competed in the shot put.

Pitts and Soderqvist finished in sixth and seventh with throws of 12.40 and 12.24 meters respectively, as they moved into eighth and 19th place in the competition.

Sophomore Gabi Deglau competed in the women’s hammer throw and threw her third-best throw of the season of 56.32 meters for 18th place.

Pitts concluded Day 1 of the heptathlon in the 200-meters, where she ran a personal-best 23.77 for first place, moving to fifth in the event. Soderqvist finished in 19th with a 26.37 to move to 20th in the heptathlon.

Matt DeMatteo kicked off the single events on the track with the men’s 400-meter hurdles, running 52.45 seconds for 14th place.

Freshman phenom Ajani Dwyer booked his ticket to Sunday’s 200m finals with a personal-best 20.51 in the prelims, good for second place in his heat.

A trio of Penn Staters took the track for the men’s 1500-meter prelims, but none survived for the finals. Graduate student Jake Allen finished fourth in his heat and 18th overall with a time of 3:48.58, followed by senior Christopher DeSousa’s 3:50.55 for 25th place and freshman Nick Sloff’s 3:57.99 for 36th place.

Five Nittany Lions entered the women’s 1500m and three live to see another day, led by a pair of graduate runners.

Madaline Ullom and Kileigh Kane finished in fourth and fifth overall with times of 4:17.40 and 4:17.42 to qualify for Sunday’s finals alongside freshman Ada Rand, who ran 4:18.98 for ninth overall.

Junior Sarah Pickering just missed the cut in 16th place with a time of 4:24.12, followed by junior Lea Hatcher’s 4:24.91 for 21st place.

Senior Florence Caron and graduate student Sophia Toti finished the night in the women’s 10,000-meters, where they earned a silver and bronze medal with times of 32:32.55 and 32:58.91, respectively.

The duo put the Nittany Lions on the board in second place overall, scoring 14 points to cap off Day 1.

Up next

Several more Nittany Lions will take the track for Day 2 of the Big Ten championship, starting with the heptathlon long jump at 1 p.m. ET.