Young sprinters lead team's indoor season

During this men's indoor track season, school records have been shattered and vast improvements have been made by some unexpected surprises.\nNormally, veterans are looked to for support and leadership, but coach Marshall Goss has seen major production emerge from two young speedsters.\nEven with a negligible amount of experience, redshirt freshman Contrell Ash and sophomore Matt Harris rocketed out of the blocks at the beginning of the season and have burned up the track.\nLast weekend at the Penn State Collegiate, Ash earned a victory in the 60-meters and a second place finish in the 200-meters against some of the conference's fastest sprinters by bearing the pain from a nagging injury.\nHarris has been equally impressive in his first full indoor season. He competed in the 60-meter hurdles in just four meets during the last indoor season.\nIn each of the five meets, Harris has improved his personal best, and it only took a day to make good on his promise to top IU's record list in his specialty event, the 60-meter hurdles. But he's not finished yet.\n"Breaking the record was great, but it is not the whole picture," Harris said. "The record is nothing without having success in the Big Ten Championship or going to nationals. It's a great feeling to see where I was at the beginning of the year and how much I have improved. I feel like our new training program has helped me the most in improving my personal best."\nSprint coach Ed Beathea chuckled at the idea that his training program was the key to Harris' success because they work together only two days a week.\n"I must be doing a great job," Beathea said. "We have improved the quality of training in practice to get more out of the time we spend. We have a group of guys that work well together, and they push each other very well."\nAsh holds the third best Big Ten time in the 60-meters, but said he believes his determination enables him to defeat any obstacle.\n"It's important to have a good attitude, so you don't bring everyone else down," Ash said. "I've been working hard on my block starts because ever since high school, I have had slow starts."\nGoss said he sees similarities in both athletes and is grateful for the needed leadership that he expects to remain throughout their college careers.\n"Contrell has done great learning how to compete rather than just win," Goss said. "Anyone can win, but it takes a certain attitude to be able to overcome yourself psychologically and compete.\n"Harris is nearly a clone of Contrell. He does the things to get in the mode of competition and the things he needs to do to be better"