Team competes with Olympian Saturday

The IU men's track and field team closed out its indoor season this weekend at the Hoosier Hills Invitational. The event signified the squad's final competitive preparation before postseason action begins next week at the Big Ten Championships. Posting nine top-five finishes and nine personal bests, the Hoosiers got a final tune-up before next week's larger stage. \nThe event was special not only in the feats accomplished by the Hoosiers, but also in some astonishing performances by other elite athletes. Terrence Trammell, a 2000 and 2004 Olympic silver medalist, set a new facility record for Gladstein Fieldhouse in the 60-meter hurdles prelims with a time of 7.63 seconds. It turned out he was just warming up. In the finals, Trammell clocked a jaw-dropping 7.51 seconds, the fastest recorded time in the world this year.\nLed by freshman Jeff Coover, all six of the pole-vaulters cleared the bar Friday. Coover placed first overall with a jump of 5 meters, while junior David Stead earned third-place honors with a mark of 4.7 meters.\nIn the men's throws, senior Ryan Ketchum threw 17.15 meters in the shot put and 18.48 meters in the weight throw, good enough for second place overall in each event. Sophomore Paul Fearnow followed suit with a personal best mark of 17.7 meters in the weight throw, falling just behind Ketchum to finish sixth.\nThe Hoosiers revealed the depth of their sprinters in the men's 60-meter dash by placing three runners in the top 10. Sophomore Marcus Thigpen led the way with a personal best time of 6.77 seconds, good enough for third place overall. Immediately after, junior Stephanos Ioannou broke the line in 6.89 seconds, earning fourth-place honors. Sophomore Jacob Moylan finished seventh with a time 7.07 seconds.\n"It was really neat having these amazing athletes here," Heisler said. "We enjoyed having them be a part of our track meet and it was great to see them do so well."\nThe Hoosiers travel to Iowa this weekend to participate in the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The conference is replete with talent this year, as the Wisconsin and Michigan accompany IU in the most recent top 25 rankings.