IU women’s track and field continued its run of victories with a 73-62 win against in-state rival Purdue on Saturday after opening the season with a win against Tennessee.
The Hoosiers were not able to beat Purdue last year, but IU hit the ground running Saturday. It scored crucial points on the field and set new personal records on the track to help the team move to 2-0 on the season.
Given Purdue's talent and the added intensity that comes with any Big Ten meet, IU Coach Ron Helmer said he was a bit surprised to see his athletes be so successful in this match.
“Going in we weren’t particularly confident that we would beat Purdue, especially on the women’s side, but as it turned out we got there,” Helmer said. “It was good for IU and good for this group of kids who competed really hard.”
Helmer said this meet was particularly difficult because in many track events, the teams did not match up evenly. At different times in the meet, Purdue would sweep an event by taking the top three spots, and IU would do the same in a different event. The field events were far more balanced between the Hoosiers and Boilermakers, however.
“The area that did have a great impact were the field events because the skill was more evenly balanced in events like the long jump and the high jump," Helmer said.
IU senior Ari Nelson and sophomore Aaliyah Armstead took first and second places, respectively, in the long jump. Freshman Khayla Dawson placed first in the shotput to secure her first collegiate win.
On the track All-America junior Katherine Receveur placed first in the mile with a time of 4:41.63, and junior Brenna Calder was able to break her personal best record with a time of 4:42.35.
Helmer said he is pleased with how the team is performing and improving so early in the season. He stressed the importance of consistency in practice and particularly on meet days.
“The thing that we talked about with the team afterwards is to continue to make sure the team is still looking good on practice days,” Helmer said. “We need to just pile up good, solid workout after good, solid workout, and that should lead to consistency on the track.”
