Warmups prepare team for race

The Hoosier trackmen continued early-season success in fine form Saturday. In their first full-squad effort, the men scored a convincing win as their 117.5 points beat Kent State (98.5) and Indiana State (98.5). \nSeveral athletes notched individual wins. In the sprints, sophomore David Neville, a top youngster in international ranks, took a second-straight 400m victory in 48.82, and sophomore Andre Grimes took the 200m in 22.62. Neville also anchored the Hoosiers' winning 4x400 relay. \nThe field events offered more points in the form of senior Mike Minton, who won the shot put with a heave of 16.42. Despite the win, Minton left the competition with improvements in mind.\n"It was just another warm-up meet," he said, "I'm going to keep building-up through the early meets to be ready to throw my best at the close of the year. I definitely could have thrown better today, but it's good to get a win and know you can improve."\nIn the distance events, senior Rodney Hollis bested the 800m field in 1:54. Senior Tom Burns held off Kent State steeplechase rival Peter Weisz in winning the mile in 4:22. The time tells little about the race, however, as a 2:22 first half guaranteed a sprint finish, led by Burns and senior Nathan Purcell, who finished third. \n"Coach Chapman told us not to go out faster than 2:07 for 800 or take the lead until then," said Burns, "A Kent guy led, and we took over at 800. All we had to do today was win the race."\nSophomore Sean Jefferson and Eric Redman took the top two spots in the 3,000 at 8:24 and 8:31, solid times given the fact they did an abbreviated workout for warm-up.\n"It was weird racing after a workout. My legs felt strange until about the last 400m when I started kicking," said Jefferson, "Changing gears snapped me out of it, and I felt better at a faster pace."\n"We're exerting a lot of energy and putting in a lot of work right now. We want everyone to peak at the same time for Big Tens and the NCAAs. We're six weeks away from the Big Ten meet and I saw a lot of positive things today. We had some strong performances for it being this early in the season."\nThe Hoosiers return to the track Saturday, when they are set to battle Purdue and Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. \n-- Contact staff writer Rob DeWitte at rdewitte@indiana.edu.