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The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU track and field travels to Illini Twilight Invitational

Quality performances.

That is what IU Coach Ron Helmer is watching for as the Hoosiers travel to Champaign, Ill., for the Illini Twilight Invitational on Saturday.

“It’s quality performances that give us optimism,” Helmer said. “Every week it seems like we add two or three names to the list where they gave us improvement to the level where we can call it a quality performance.”

Three athletes that stand out to Helmer are sophomore thrower Nakel McClinton, freshman middle distance runner Daniel Kuhn and sophomore hurdler Mackenzie Bollinger.

“When you open up like Nakel did in the hammer, or like Daniel Kuhn did in the 800, or even Mackenzie Bollinger last week in the hurdles, then those are quality performances,” Helmer said. “Those performances give me the optimism that things are moving in the right direction.”

McClinton broke the IU women’s hammer throw record in the first outdoor meet of the season at the Pac-12 vs. Big Ten Invitational with her toss of 59.66 meters, a throw that currently stands at No. 20 in the nation.

Kuhn burst onto the scene in his true freshman outdoor season when he ran the third-fastest 800-meter run in IU men’s history with his run of 1:47.80.

Bollinger started the outdoor season strong with her third career 400-meter hurdle race at the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge in Louisville, Ky., where she ran 1:00.73, the eighth-best time in IU history.

“You can’t do on the weekends what you haven’t been doing consistently Monday to Friday,” Helmer said. “People who don’t work consistently Monday to Friday won’t have these quality performances.”

Junior sprinter Cornelius Strickland finally found the weekend success he had been searching for last week in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge, as he triumphed in both the 100-meter dash (10.83) and 200-meter dash (21.41) for the first time since the Charlotte 49er Classic last season.

Strickland continues to perform as IU’s top sprinter, claiming both of the top times in the 100 and 200 without competition.

“It feels good,” Strickland said. “It hasn’t happened in a while. I’ve just been working harder in the weight room, trying to get stronger and trusting whatever coach tells me.”

Strickland will not run this weekend in the Illinois meet in order to rest for the remaining outdoor season.

True freshman middle distance runner Kendall Wiles is active this weekend, however, and will be running the 800-meter run, an event that she never ran in high school because she ran sprinting events, such as the 400-meter dash.

She holds the team’s best 400-meter dash mark in her only 400 this outdoor season with a time of 55.90, the No. 18 performance in the Big Ten.

“The competition is really eye-opening,” Wiles said. “Coming from high school, where there isn’t much competition and you just kick everyone’s butt, to college, you just realize that you aren’t the best anymore. It makes you want to work harder to get to that level.”

Wiles currently holds the eighth-fastest time on the women’s team in the 800-meter run with her time of 2:14.34.

“Being a sprinter in high school and then coming to college to run distance has really been a struggle for me,” Wiles said. “It’s made me a better runner, though, and I’ll keep getting better because of that.”

Helmer and the Hoosiers will hope for more quality performances from more athletes this weekend and going down the stretch of the outdoor season.

“Many athletes just need to get out of their own way and let their preparation take them to the performances that they are prepared to do,” Helmer said.

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