Hoosiers to face Purdue

This weekend, the No. 21 men's track and field team travels to West Lafayette to face tough conference rival Purdue. The meet comes as a break in the high-profile meets involving top-tier athletes from across the nation. The team has spent almost every week traveling across the country for such meets. This is only the team's second dual meet of the outdoor season.\n"It will be a great meet and a very, very tough one," coach Marshall Goss said. "We may not match up in the same events, but it will go down to the wire. It'll make a great meet to watch."\nThe Hoosiers will get a look this week at how they match up to top Big Ten competition heading into the championship meet May 16 and 17 at the University of Minnesota. The team has aspirations of a title at the meet after a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in March.\nPurdue boasts one of the premier track teams in the Big Ten. At the indoor Big Ten Championships, Purdue swept the top four spots in the 60-meter dash, which led them to a third-place finish at the meet. Purdue will once again rely on sprinting against the Hoosiers and will also look for help from its field events.\nThe Hoosiers have been led in the past several weeks by their distance runners, namely sophomore All-American John Jefferson and his twin, redshirt freshman Sean Jefferson. The pair have been dominant in recent meets, each holding the second fastest time in the nation in their respective events: John in 1,500 meters and Sean in 5,000 meters.\nThe team will also rely on Aarik Wilson, a sophomore All-American and two-time NCAA runner-up in the triple jump. Wilson has struggled as of late but looks to get back on track for his title hunt this weekend.\nAlso ranked in the top 15 in the nation in their events are junior Tom Burns in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and senior Adam Judge in the hammer throw.\nThis weekend will be a good opportunity for the team to continue its task of qualifying more athletes for the NCAA regional meet at Ohio State on May 30 and 31. Athletes must meet their provisional requirement in their event to qualify for the meet. Goss said the team should send someone in each event and, in some events, be four deep. Only a few athletes remain to qualify, but Goss said they should get everyone they need in this weekend.\n"The main objective is to gain depth at regionals," Goss said. "I really feel that we'll get 90 percent, or even 100 of our last guys qualified this weekend."\nThe team has one final tune-up before the Big Ten Championships with the Billy Hayes Invitational next weekend. The Hoosiers will play host to the meet, which is only the second home meet of the season.