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The men’s track and field team picked up another win Saturday by defeating its rival, Purdue. The Hoosiers ran away with this one and punished the Boilermakers by a final score of 93-41 in Gladstein Fieldhouse.
IU has now won two duals in two weeks after defeating Tennessee last week. The Hoosiers earned this landslide victory due to efforts from all areas of the team.
“Beating Purdue as a team means a lot no matter how you do it or when you do it,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “Collectively we had enough points to really put it to this Purdue team that has some really good athletes on it.”
The Hoosiers had some outstanding individual performances in the victory.
Junior Daniel Kuhn won the 600-meter run in record-breaking fashion. Kuhn set a Gladstein Fieldhouse record with his time of 1:16.11 and now has the fastest 600 time in the nation. Senior Diquis Manley finished second with a time of 1:23.27.
Junior Jordan Huntoon and freshman Cooper Williams placed first and second in the 800-meter run. The Hoosiers swept the top four spots in the mile. Sophomore Kyle Mau finished first with a time of 4:02.83. Junior Joseph Murphy finished in second place, and seniors Matthew Schwartzer and Mark Chandler took third and fourth place,respectively.
IU also took the top four spots in the 3,000-meter race. Sophomore Bryce Millar finished first with a time of 8:07.93. Matthew Schwartzer, Mark Chandler and fellow senior Jeremy Coughler rounded out the rest of the positions.
IU’s 4x400-meter relay team finished second, but the 4x800-meter relay squad took first with the fastest time in the country of 7:36.26. Cooper Williams, Jordan Huntoon, Joseph Murphy and Kyle Mau were the members of the winning relay team.
The Hoosiers swept the Boilermakers in all field events. Sophomore Treyton Harris had a standout performance, narrowly defeating his sophomore teammate Eric Bethea in the long jump. Harris also finished second in the 200-meter dash. Bethea earned a first-place finish in the triple jump. His distance of 15.92 meters was good for fourth-best in the NCAA.
Junior Andrew Miller won the weight throw for a second consecutive dual meet, and freshman Adam Coulon and juniors Andrew Huber and Alex Shinneri took the top three spots in the pole vault. Sophomore Willie Morrison continued his excellent season by winning the shot put and placing second in the weight throw. Junior Paul Galas and senior Steven Leonard finished first and second in the high jump.
“I think their confidence is growing,” Helmer said. “I see people competing with more confidence, and I see them starting to understand what it feels like to be a group of collective individuals becoming a team.”
Coach Helmer praised a few of his athletes for their individual performances and the team overall. A few names he mentioned were Bethea, Kuhn, Mau, Morrison and Millar. Each one of them had a first-place finish in the meet against Purdue.
“I think they realize that we try to point out the really significant performances that we have,” Helmer said. “What I think they are starting to find out is that these performances they’ve had in recent weeks aren’t flukes. We have young guys whose confidence is just starting to soar.”
Helmer talked last week about the process he wants his team to take this year and for the future and how confidence among other things is a key component to the process. He said he hopes wins like this one will show his team it is capable of much more.
“One builds on another and then onto another,” Helmer said. “The more confident you are, the more relaxed you are when you compete. The more relaxed you are, the better you perform. The better you perform, the more your confidence grows, and that’s what we have going on with a good number of people.”
The Hoosiers will return to Gladstein Fieldhouse next weekend for the Gladstein Invitational. The meet will begin Friday and finish Saturday.
