Hoosiers record top times, top-10 finishes at Tyson

The IU women's track team seemed to ride the momentum of its season-opening home stand to have many athletes place well at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend.\n"When you compete with the best schools in the country, you want to compete well," said associate head coach and sprints coach Ed Beathea. "I think the meet served its purpose to prepare us for conference."\nDuring the two-day event, IU recorded seven new personal-best times and four top-10 finishes against some of the nation's premier collegiate athletes.\nOn the first day of action, freshman long jumper Candice Perry and senior mile runner Larra Overton shared the honors of placing the best for the Hoosiers, with both finishing third overall in their respective events. In the long jump event, Perry leaped 5.94 meters to success. In the mile run, Overton ran not only to a third-place finish, but a season-best time as well of 4 minutes and 52.80 seconds. Another distance runner, senior Kelly Siefker, finished fifth in the mile and also recorded a personal best time of 4:53.44. \nThe Hoosiers only added one more top-10 finish on day two of the meet but did add five more personal bests. The best performance of the day was a fourth-place finish for the IU Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team with a time of 11:49.23, a team best. Other notables from the second day included freshman Stephanie Greer and the 4x400 meter relay team. Greer finished 12th overall and with a personal best time of 10:01.99. The 4x400 meter relay team notched 13th place with a personal best of 3:44.80.\nEven though many athletes had a strong meet, Beathea said he believes that the team as a whole must improve.\n"We need to compete better to perform better in conference," Beathea said.\nThe Hoosiers are back in Bloomington preparing for the Hoosier Hills Invitational on Feb. 17 and the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 25 and 26 in Madison, Wis.