After a strong start to the season on their home turf, the Penn State men’s and women’s track teams took their talent to warmer weather over the weekend to compete at the two-day Clemson Invitational. They competed against some top southern teams like Georgia and the University of Kentucky. In addition, the meet also hosted a significant number of professional and unattached athletes.

The star of the weekend was Danae Rivers, who opened her 2018 campaign on a high note. The sophomore is coming off a stellar freshman year that included multiple individual Big Ten titles, seven school records, and being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year for both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

After not competing at the opening meet, Rivers made sure her presence was felt at Clemson. Rivers bested her own indoor 800 meter school record of 2:04.04 by almost a full second, running 2:03.13, which is currently the fastest collegiate time in the nation. She completed the race more than eight seconds ahead of the next collegiate competitor, but finished second in the race to Natoya Goule. Goule is a former Clemson competitor who now competes for Jamaica. Penn State teammate and women’s soccer talent Marissa Sheva finished in fourth with a time of 2:14.12.

Other notable female performances include Keianna Albury, who finished fifth in the 60 meters, Victoria Tachinski with a fifth place finish in the 600 meters, Marissa Sheva who finished second in the mile, and Hannah Mulhern who tied for fourth in the high jump,

On the men’s side, Isaiah Harris claimed the individual title in the 600 meter race with a time of 1:16.55, which was a new facility record. Harris holds the school record in this event at 1:14.96, which he set last year during the 2017 indoor season. This school record time is also the second-fastest time ever run in the world for this indoor event.

The Penn State men went 1-2-3 in the 600 meter event with Harris in first, Domenic Peretta finishing in second in 1:19.32, and Jordan Makins in third in 1:20.13. Peretta also won the mile run in 4:10.07.

Bryce Williams continued the strong start to his season with a win in the triple jump after jumping out to 15.85 meters. Williams’ personal best comes from last week’s season opener, where he set a mark of 16.24 meters, which still stands as the top jump in the nation after the second weekend of competition.

Several other men posted top-five finishes, including Xavier Smith with a fourth place finish in the 60 meters, Billy McDevitt in third place in the mile, and Malik Moffett with a fourth place finish in the long jump.

Both teams will compete next weekend at home once again at the two-day Penn State National Open meet held at the Horace Ashenfelter indoor track facility.