Michigan State University
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Petruno and Stephenson Earn Second-Team All-America Honors on Day 1 of NCAA Outdoor Championships
6/7/2023 11:07:00 PM | Track and Field
AUSTIN, Texas – Graduate students John Petruno and Trevor Stephenson capped off their historic Spartan careers with Second-Team All-America finishes on the first day of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Texas' Mike A. Myers Stadium Wednesday.Â
Stephenson, who placed 15th in the pole vault, ends his career as a five-time All-American. Stephenson made two-first attempt clearances at 5.15m and 5.30m but was unable to clear 5.45m on a windy night in Austin to remain in the competition. Stephenson broke MSU's indoor (5.66m) and outdoor (5.55m) pole vault records in 2023 and won his first conference title at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in May.Â
Petruno narrowly missed a spot in the 1500m final, finishing in 13th place and 0.02 behind the final time qualifier. He ran a season-best 3:40.36 to finish as a Second-Team All-American in the event for the second-straight year and finishes his career in the Green & White as a two-time All-American.Â
Seniors Heath Baldwin and Ryan Talbot began their two-day decathlon competition Wednesday afternoon. Baldwin ended the first day of competition in 12th place with 3,985 points while Talbot sits in 21st with 3,755 points.Â
Baldwin's best event of the day was the shot put, where he set a personal best of 15.83m for 841 points and third in the field. He ran 11.33 in the 100m (789 points), posted a mark of 6.85m in the long jump (778 points), cleared 1.95m in the high jump (758 points) and ran 49.90 in the 400m (819 points).Â
Talbot ran the eighth-best time in the field in the 400m (48.05, 907 points), ran 10.93 in the 100m (876 points), recorded a jump of 6.30m (652 points) in the long jump, posted a shot put mark of 12.57m (641 points) and cleared 1.86m (679 points) in the high jump.Â
The pair will wrap up the final five events in the decathlon Thursday, beginning with the 110m hurdles at noon CT and concluding with the 1500m at 9:56 p.m. CT.Â
The Spartan women will also be in action Thursday, with senior Lauren Freeland in the 1500m semis (7:46 p.m. CT) and sophomore Opal Jackson in the shot put finals (9:30 p.m. CT). The meet will broadcast on ESPN2 with field event streams available on ESPN+.Â
Players Mentioned
