Penn State track and field saw three of its athletes qualify for the national championships on May 27 during the NCAA First Round in Lexington, Kentucky. The event marked a strong showing for the Nittany Lions, with additional runners advancing to upcoming rounds and one sprinter setting a new program record.
Collin Burkhart was the first to secure his spot at nationals, achieving a distance of 221-2.00 (67.42m) in the men’s hammer throw. This mark was the sixth-furthest at the meet and will be Burkhart’s first appearance at nationals.
In men’s shot put, Dylan Lambrecht placed second with a throw of 64-3.00 (19.58m), while Ryan Henry qualified with a fifth-place finish at 62-5.00 (19.02m). Both Lambrecht and Henry will make their debut appearances at nationals, with Lambrecht’s performance also ranking as the fifth-best in Penn State history.
Seven other Nittany Lion runners advanced to Friday’s competitions that will determine further qualifiers for nationals. Ajani Dwyer broke his own program record in the men’s 100-meter dash by running a time of 9.98 seconds—the second-fastest among all preliminaries—improving his previous best by 0.06 seconds.
The men’s 800-meter run featured five Penn State athletes; four advanced to Friday: Niko Schultz (second place, 1:46.17), Allon Clay (third place, 1:46.65), Yukichi Ishii (seventh place, 1:46.91), and Andrew Regnier (1:47.03). Jake Palermo moved forward after placing sixth in the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 45.25 seconds, while Nick Sloff advanced from his second-place finish in the men’s 1500-meter run at 3:43.11.
Two other Nittany Lions concluded their seasons during this round: Nolan Carey threw a distance of 216-9.00 (66.08m) in men’s javelin, and Bryce Thompson recorded an effort of 59-11.00 (18.26m) in shot put.
