Team can't control destiny in Big Ten

UNIVERSITY PARK, Penn. -- The IU women's track and field team would have been in good shape if it controlled its own destiny heading into the final event of the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The event was the 4x400-meter relay, and IU broke the meet record in a time of 3:40.44.\nBut IU didn't control its destiny.\nAll Michigan needed to do was finish fourth in the relay, and that's where the Wolverines finished, thus topping IU 116-114.5.\nFreshman Charlene Maddox, sophomore Chiama Ndubisi, junior Rachelle Boone and senior Tia Trent combined to set the record in the 4x400 relay, and Trent won the 400-meter dash as well.\nStill, all of that wasn't quite enough to translate into a team title.\n"I'm happy to say that we won the 4x4 (relay)," said Trent, the first Hoosier to win the 400 since 1995. "We all worked together. I'm blessed I won my individuals. But I'm sorry we didn't win the indoor championship."\nTrent was one of many Hoosiers to have strong performances. Going into the mile final, freshman Mindy Peterson and sophomore Audrey Giesler were ranked first and third after winning their preliminary trials the day before. Peterson fell right behind the leader at the beginning of the race, and Giesler led the following pack. After four laps, both Peterson and Giesler had dropped back. But by the end of the race, Peterson and Giesler regained their strength and sprinted into fifth and seventh place.\nPeterson, however, was disqualified following a controversial call, which gave Michigan one more point and held back a possible three points for IU.\nSophomore Jennifer Cobbina and juniors Tandra Foster and Rose Richmond were close to a clean sweep in the long jump placing second, third and fourth. The women contributed a boost to IU's score for the first day. \nThe first points scored by IU were scored by junior Kelley McKinney in the 20-pound weight throw. McKinney placed fourth with a throw of 18.90 meters. \nBeing back home in the Keystone state brought family and friends to watch freshman Emily Tharpe make an impressive vault to place second in the pole vault. She set a personal record vault of 12-10. \nThe event began with a moment of silence for pole vaulter Kevin Dare of Penn State, who died the first day of the Men's Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Competition in Minneapolis. The men's conference was cancelled, and the meet will not be rescheduled, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.\nChristina Archibald jumped into a third-place tie in the high jump, covering a height of 5 feet, 8 and one half inches. Although the freshman is excited about placing at the Big Ten, Archibald wished she could have done better. \n"I know I can clear it (the next height)," she said. "I need to clear it to make provisionals." \nArchibald will have one more chance to make her goal a reality at the Last Chance meet next weekend.\nIn the 400-meter run, three Hoosiers competed in the same heat -- Trent, Ndubisi and Maddox. The women placed first, third and fourth in their heat and added more points to the score. Ndubisi placed third and Maddox placed fifth in the final, which Trent won.\nNot even 10 seconds went by, and juniors Danielle Carruthers and Rachelle Boone swept the 60-meter dash. Breaking the all-time Big Ten record of 7.33, Carruthers sprinted into a first-place finish with a time of 7.26. Boone, placing second, ran a 7.37. \nWith little rest in between the 60-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles, Carruthers, ranked first in nation for the 60 hurdles, placed sixth in the event. \nBoone and Carruthers went on to place first and third in the 200-meter run. The competition was Boone's chance to set an all-time Big Ten record time of 23.47. \nCourtney Bell placed third in her final 800-meter run. The senior finished with a time of 2:09.86, less than a second behind first place.\n"I've gotten fourth the past two years," Bell said. "This year I got my (personal record) and a medal as well"