Team looking to repeat Big Ten feat

The women's track and field team won't win this year's indoor Big Ten championships with 150 points like it did last year, coach Randy Heisler said. The Hoosiers will likely win more than the one event they did last year, but they won't win the meet by 38 points like last year.\nIn fact, four teams could battle for first place, so every point matters, he said.\nThe Hoosiers will try to gather as many points as possible at the Big Tens Saturday and Sunday at Purdue's Lambert Fieldhouse in West Lafayette, Ind. Heisler said IU could capture four or five events this year -- far more than the Hoosiers' lone win in the shot put last season. But the team is going to need to snag several scored places for IU to repeat its 2000 team title.\n"We're going in to win the meet," Heisler said. "It's going to be a very, very close meet. Penn State, Purdue, Minnesota -- realistically, 10 points could separate four teams. Every single point is going to be very, very important."\nIn some of the sprinting events, the final entries could wind up mirroring the final entries at the NCAA championships. The three fastest runners in the 60-meter hurdles are from the Big Ten. Defending champion Donica Merriman of Ohio State boasts the nation's fastest time of 8.03 seconds, while 2000 Olympian Perdita Felicien of Illinois is second with 9.07 seconds and IU sophomore Danielle Carruthers is third with 8.12 seconds.\nIn the 60-meter dash, five Big Ten athletes rank in the nation's top 22. Senior Lorraine Dunlop owns the best time in the conference and second best in the nation at 7.31. Minnesota's Taheshia Harrigan (7.35) is second in the Big Ten while sophomore Rachelle Boone ranks fourth.\nHeisler said IU at its best could win the 60-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the hurdles, the 400-meter dash and the 4x400-meter relay. \nJunior Tia Trent has the fastest time (54.34 seconds) in the 400 dash, ahead of Laila Brock of Penn State (54.92). In the 200-meter dash, Boone boasts the third-best time while Carruthers is fourth and Dunlop is fifth.\n"In the sprints, there are going to be three or four teams that are pretty competitive," sprints coach Ed Beathea said. "It'll be a tough meet. That's pretty typical in our conference, with Illinois and Minnesota have good sprinters. Penn State has a good sprinter. Ohio State obviously has a phenomenal sprinter. It'll be curious to see, because there are a lot of young sprinters in the conference, how everyone does."\nUnlike last year, the Hoosiers chance at winning the title could come down to the meet's final event, the 4x400-meter relay, Carruthers said. The Hoosiers don't have as deep of a roster as last year, she said.\n"We all do our individual events very well, but how we do things is going to relate back to the four-by-four," she said. "A lot of our meets have come down to the four-by-four. Last year, it didn't come down to the four-by-four ever. We had already won the meet before the four-by-four."\nIn the long jump, sophomores Tandra Foster and Rose Richmond rank second and fifth, respectively, in the conference. Junior Stephanie Magley and senior Courtney Bell place fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 800 free, and sophomore Nicole Randolph ranks eighth in the high jump. Senior Maria Fleischmann, the Big Ten runner-up in the triple jump last year, said she will travel to Purdue and might compete after missing most of the season with a back injury.\nThe season-best performances of IU's long-distance runners and pole vaulters rest outside of scoring range. Only the top eight finishers score.\n"I think the vault's come together at the right time," Heisler said. "Right now we don't have anybody ranked in the top eight. I guarantee you when that meet's over with, we're going to have scored some points in the vault"