Top runners to sit out meet for IU

The IU men's track team returns home Friday for the Hoosier Hills Invitational at the Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse. The meet begins at 4 p.m. with the women's 5,000 meters and concludes after the men's 4x400 meter relay, set to start at 9:30 p.m. \nWith the Big Ten Indoor Championships looming next weekend, many of the athletes will sit the meet out, opting instead to get in some final sharpening workouts. As a result, Hoosier Hills allows lesser-known athletes a chance to compete. \nOthers will get their fine-tuning in the form of one final competition before next weekend's Big Ten clash in Ann Arbor, Mich. The meet is a brief one-day affair, and has, and has been used in the past as a platform for "last-chance" qualifying efforts. \nHowever, given the weekend between the Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Championships, many athletes will wait to take their last shot at qualifying at a meet at Notre Dame in two weeks, as Notre Dame's oversized track attracts solid competition, all in search of qualifying times and performances. \nSophomore Stephen Haas, whose 14:06 5K has him sitting on the bubble for entry into the NCAA Championships, is in this category.\n"I'm resting this weekend, and running just in the distance medley at Big Ten's," said Haas. "We want to be sure and have fresh legs to take a shot at a better time at Notre Dame."\nAmong the athletes who will be competing is 2002 Indiana High School state mile champion Nick Kruse, who will race in the mile, an event he has run already in 4:20. Kruse has been plagued by the injury bug indoors after a successful freshman cross country debut. \nMany of the athletes competing will jump right back into tough training after the meet to prepare for the outdoor season, which starts March 26 with the Florida Relays. \n"After this meet I've got five or six weeks to train," said Kruse. "This is really just to run faster than I did at the Indiana Invite."\nAn athlete who will use the meet as prep for the Big Ten Championships is senior thrower Wil Fleming, who has been somewhat frustrated this season. He is looking for a big improvement in the coming two weekends, and a decent competition at Hoosier Hills. \nFleming said the meet should provide good throwing competition as Purdue usually sends its throwers to compete.\n-- Contact staff writer Rob DeWitte at rdewitte@indiana.edu.