Track team hosting invitational

The IU men's track team will close out the school year by hosting one of its only home meets of the season, the Billy Hayes Invitational, today at 4 p.m. The meet serves as final preparation for the Big Ten Championships, set for next weekend at Ohio State. Being only five weeks away from the NCAA Championships, IU has tapered down their training regimes. \n"I feel great," said sophomore All-American David Neville. "My training feels just ridiculously good right now and I'm ready to run fast."\nNeville will take a shot at Regional qualifying marks in both the 200 meter and 4 X 400 meter relay. The team was an agonizing .08 of a second off qualifying for the NCAAs last weekend at the Penn Relays. Neville already qualified for the NCAAs in his signature event, the 400 meter dash. \nDistance races at the Big Ten Championships are often tactical, which produces competitive races but rarely fast times. This meet will provide IU's distance runners a chance to solidify a fast time for NCAA consideration. The runners will have one more time to qualify for the NCAAs at the NCAA Regional at IU May 27-28.\n"We might run the 1,500 this weekend," said junior All-American John Jefferson. "If we do it we'll be to make sure we have a fast enough time to assure that we get into NCAAs regardless of how Regional goes."\nCurrently, John and twin brother Sean sit seventh and eighth in the Regional performance list. The top five finishers at the meet will advance to NCAAs. Although there are no unknown talents in the Region, Sean Jefferson said, a fast time can never hurt when looking for an NCAA bid.\n"If we run Billy Hayes, it will be fast," said Sean, who was runner-up in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships. "We'll need to run faster than 3:44 to improve our position, and that's basically like running a sub 4:00 mile"