Duke Gears Up for Penn State National Open

Friday, January 27

State College, Pa.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Penn State National

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Gears Up for Penn State National Open

1/26/2023 7:20:00 PM | Track & Field

Live Results Meet Schedule (PDF)Heat Sheets (PDF)

DURHAM – Duke track and field travels to State College, Pa., this weekend as the Blue Devils gear up to take part in the Penn State National Open set for Jan. 27-28 at Indoor Multisport Facility and Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.

MEET INFORMATION/WHAT TO KNOW

The Duke women checked in at No. 19 in the first USTFCCCA rankings of the 2022-23 indoor season. The Blue Devils are also second in the Southeast Region.
Graduate student Isabel Wakefield was named ACC Women's Field Athlete of the Week after winning the pentathlon at the Hokie Invitational this past weekend.
Wakefield commanded the field from the jump en route to totaling 4,130 points to win the event – currently No. 2 in the NCAA. Her performance featured a first-place finish in the 60m hurdles and long jump along with a runner-up finish in the shot put.
In addition to Duke and host Penn State, the meet field features athletes Akron, Army – West Point, Ashland, Bowling Green, Bucknell, Buffalo, Coppin State, Delaware, Duke, Duquesne, Edinboro, Findlay, Guelph, Kent State, Lock Haven, Loyola, Mount Union, North Carolina, Penn, Rider, Saint Francis, Towson, UMBC, Villanova, Virginia, Walsh, West Virginia and William & Mary.
On Friday, the Blue Devils open at 2 p.m., with the women's weight throw invite followed by the women's weight throw at 3:30 p.m. The men's pole vault invite (4 p.m.), women's long jump (6 p.m.) and men's weight throw (6 p.m.) round out the day one field events.
Track events commence Friday for the Blue Devils with the prelims of the women's 60m hurdles and 60m dash, set for 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m., respectively. Duke also features entries in the women's (5:35 p.m.) and men's (5:55) mile run as well as the women's (7:10 p.m.) and men's (7:25 p.m.) 800m races.
The men's and women's high jump opens the Saturday slate for Duke with both events set for an 11 a.m., start. Duke will also be represented in the women's pole vault invite at 1:45 p.m. before closing out field events for the weekend with the men's triple jump (2:30 p.m.) and women's high jump invite (3:30 p.m.)
On the track, the Blue Devils open things up in the men's 400m dash slated for 11:10 a.m.
The women's (1:45 p.m.) and men's (2 p.m.) distance medley relay kicks off the Blue Devils' afternoon schedule, followed by the women's and men's 400m invite ay 2:15 p.m., and 2:25 p.m., respectively.
Duke closes out the meet with the women's (3:10 p.m.) and men's (3:20 p.m.) 200m invite, women's (3:35 p.m.) and men's (3:45 p.m.) 3,000m invite and the women's 4x400m relay.
Live results will be provided by PTTiming at the link here.

LAST TIME OUT

Duke track and field rewrote the school record books in four events at the Hokie Invitational. In addition to establishing new program bests in the 60m dash, men's weight throw, men's 1000m run and the women's 300m, the Blue Devils also tallied four more top-five program marks, won seven events and registered 33 top-five placements.
Halle Bieber got the record-breaking party started in the prelims of the 60m dash with the top time of her heat and the overall field as she dashed to a PR of 7.43 seconds to leapfrog India Lowe's four-year-old mark of 7.44 and slot herself into the top spot on the program list.
Beck Wittstadt followed suit and delivered a historical performance in the 1,000m run, clocking a personal best of 2:21.55 – a time that dethroned the 53-year-old record set by former Olympian Bob Wheeler in 1971.
Jide Akinjisola continued his strong start to the season with a personal-best performance of his own in the men's weight throw, getting the weight out to 19.31m (63-4.25 feet) on his second throw, unseating Ben Beatty's 2020 mark of 19.08m (62-7.25 feet).
The Blue Devils closed the evening with a sweep of the top-five in the 300m dash, where the trio of Megan McGinnis (first), Julia Jackson (second) and Bieber (third) all ran under the previous school-record time of 38.21 set by India Lowe in 2019.
In their first career 300m races, McGinnis and Jackson made immediate statements as they clocked 37.94 and 37.8, respectively, to cement themselves into the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the program list. Bieber turned in her second personal best of the day, this time running 38.09 seconds – No. 3 all-time in Duke lore.
For the complete weekend recap, click the links: Day 1 | Day 2

UP NEXT
The Blue Devils make the trip back to Winston-Salem where the squad will compete at the JDL Camel City Invite slated for Feb. 3-4 at the JDL Fast Track.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils cross country and track & field, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeTFXC."

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