In a split-squad weekend, the Hoosiers rested many of their top athletes as they sent three to Walnut, Calif., for the Mt. San Antonio College Relays and the rest of the roster to Champaign, Ill., for the Illini Twilight Invitational.
Athletes such as sophomore Tre’tez Kinnaird, junior Cornelius Strickland and senior Derrick Morgan were all given the weekend off in order to help them rest in preparation for the remainder of the outdoor season.
While there were no IU victories in the two meets, five Hoosiers finished top-five in their events, including junior pole vaulter Sophie Gutermuth and sophomores Taylor Wiley, in the women’s 800-meter run, and Amanda Behnke, in the 5K.
Gutermuth placed second to the indoor Big Ten Champion Stephanie Richartz of Illinois with a vault of 4.15 meters. Wiley placed fourth in the 800 with a personal-record time of 2:10.68, and Behnke finished fourth at the Mt. SAC Relays in the women’s 5K with a personal-best of 16:15.07.
“It didn’t even hit me how fast I ran the race until I was in my cool down,” Behnke said. “I had just broken my personal record by 10 seconds.”
Behnke’s time is the third-best in IU history and seventh in the Big Ten this season, leaving two IU women in the top-10, as freshman Jill Whitman sits at 10th in the conference.
Her time also qualifies as the 48th time in the nation, good enough for NCAA East Regionals in May.
“To have my name on the same list as some of those girls in IU history is very honorable,” Behnke said. “They’re all respectable, and I’d love to have that record some day.”
Also competing at the Mt. SAC Relays were senior Evan Esselink and sophomore Matthew Schwartzer. Esselink ran in the invitational 5K, while Schwartzer competed in the open 5K.
Esselink finished 15th with a time of 14:09.78, and Schwartzer placed 9th with 14:03.92.
“We sent them to make the 5K an option for the future,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said about the three Mt. SAC runners. “Amanda may run it in Big Tens, but I was disappointed with Evan and Matt’s runs because I know what they can do. I wish they could have reached sub-14 times. That would have separated them from the masses.”
Providing some spark from the hurdle events, a weak group within both sides of the team, sophomore Adrian Mable ran a personal record of 14.50 in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing in sixth place.
“There were some national qualifiers there and some Olympians,” Mable said. “It definitely makes you want to run harder and try to compete with these guys when there are runners like that in the same race as you. That’s how it is in any sport.”
Mable’s time stands as the 11th-best in the Big Ten. Junior hurdler Reggie Smith also placed 18th in the Big Ten with his time of 54.01 in the 400-meter hurdles.
Even with the performances displayed without the top athletes competing, Helmer still remains unsatisfied.
“The optimist in me was hoping for a much bigger step this weekend, but we did have a lot of athletes take steps forward and set lifetime-highs,” Helmer said. “Hopefully those four or five athletes can continue to grow through the season.”
