In her first multi as a collegian, freshman Bryanna Craig recorded the 5th-highest score in Purdue history.
Craig, who grew up in Millville and began her track career at Millville High School, placed 3rd in the pentathlon Friday at the PNC Lenny Lyles Invitational at Louisville’s Norton Health Care Sports and Learning Center with a score of 3,968.
That’s No. 16 in NCAA Division 1 so far this year and No. 1 by a freshman.
Pitt athletes Lydia Bottelier, a senior, and Ilse Steigenga, a junior, placed 1st and 2nd, with the top three separated by just 12 points over five events. Bottelier won with 3,980 and Steigenga was 2nd with 3,975.
Craig picked up her biggest point total in the 60-meter hurdles, where she ran 8.76, not far off her PR of 8.70 from a meet earlier this month in Chicago. She led all competitors with a 2:16.02 in the 800 for 878 points and also scored big in the high jump with a 5-7 ¼, not far off her indoor and outdoor PRs of 5-8. The 800 time isn’t a PR but it’s a multi PR.
She also set indoor PRs in the shot put with a 34-0 and the long jump at 18-1 ¾. She’s thrown 34-6 ¾ and jumped 18-8 ¼ outdoors.
Four Purdue women have broken 4,000 points in the pentathlon but only one since 1997 – Rebecca Coan scored 4,023 points at the 2020 Big Ten Championships in Geneva, Ohio. NCAA outdoor heptathlon champ Corissa Yasen set the school record of 4,181 in 1996 when she won the Big Ten Championship in Madison, Wisc.
Craig won three scholastic multi-event national titles, recorded the 6th-highest pentathlon in high school history and placed 3rd at the USATF Under-20 Championships in Eugene and 6th in the World Under 20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 