Madison, Wisc., May 19, 2002 - Penn State senior Ryan Olkowski flew to a career best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 20.59 in winning the 200-meter title on the final day of the 2002 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships Sunday in Madison, Wisc. Olkowski, who earned All-America honors indoors in the 200 this season, out ran Purdue's Jacques Reeves, who was second in 20.83, to claim his first Big Ten title. Olkowski also finished fourth in the 100 meters (10.49), sixth in the long jump (6-10 1/4) and anchored the 4X100 relay team to a seventh place finish (40.71) in the championships.

Olkowski led several top scorers for the Lions as Penn State finished fifth in the team standings with 72 points. Wisconsin won the team competition with 157 1/2 points followed by Minnesota (153), Purdue and Indiana.

Penn State also got a pair of runner-up finishes on the championship. Freshman Ernie Terrell, a wide receiver on the football team, ran a season best 46.63 to finish second in the 400 meters behind Minnesota's Adam Steele who won in 46.40. Meanwhile, junior Brian Derby came up just short of defending his conference title in the 400-meter hurdles as he finished second in an NCAA provisional time of 49.97, just a tenth behind winner Michael Jakobsson of Minnesota who claimed the title in 49.87. Derby also took home third in the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 14.09.

Penn State also got top scoring out of its javelin corp as sophomores Matt Moyer and Brian Stumpf finished third and fifth, respectively, with throws of 218-2 and 212-8. Junior Chavous Nichols scored in two events for Penn State as he claimed fourth in the triple jump with an NCAA provisional mark of 52-5 1/2 and was seventh in the long jump with a leap of 24-3. Freshman Matt Mereba finished fifth in the 1,500 meters in 3:52.47 and senior David Romilly took home eighth in the decathlon scoring 6,117 points.

Derby, Olkowski and Nichols will wait to see if they make the field of the NCAA Championships held May 29-June 1 in Baton Rouge, La.