Team travels to Missouri for meet

Despite unfavorable weather for meets, the men’s and women’s track and field teams will continue to clear hurdles this season. \nAfter canceling last weekend’s Indiana Relays, the teams will be taking their top athletes to Columbia, Mo., this weekend to compete in the Tom Botts Invitational held by the University of Missouri.\nAs with every outdoor meet, the teams hope to have their athletes post regional qualifying marks. The athletes who post these marks will be able to compete in the regional meet, which will also be hosted by Missouri. The regional meet is where these athletes will then try to qualify for nationals by finishing in the top five for automatic qualification or finishing sixth or seventh to enter a wild card pool.\nOne event where the Hoosiers, especially the women, routinely send athletes to the regional meet and then on to nationals is the steeplechase. The steeplechase is a 3,000-meter run with four barriers and one water pit strewn out every 400 meters. \nAccording to women’s interim head coach Judy Wilson, the team has had two women compete at nationals and place high enough to earn All-America honors since the team started competing in the event in 2002.\n“It takes tough people for the steeplechase,” Wilson said. “It is grueling to watch, because you hit a hurdle and it will fall, but if you hit one of these barriers that sucker won’t budge.”\nOne athlete who feels she is tough enough for the steeplechase is junior Maura Ratcliff. Wilson hopes that Ratcliff can hit a regional qualifying time in the event soon. \n“It is definitely a possibility,” Ratcliff said about her coach’s hopes. “I am trying to keep my eyes ahead to that.”\nWith the event combining a distance race with obstacles normally reserved for sprints, Ratcliff said that the event can be difficult to train for.\n“It’s an interesting event, running fast while getting over barriers and the water pit,” Ratcliff said. “You have to balance your time between the two.”\nAccording to Ratcliff, steeplechase athletes do a lot of training to get their legs strong for jumping the barriers, and then also run 1,500-meter runs and 3,000-meter runs to build up enough speed and endurance for the race.\nThe teams are hoping that their training and the momentum from their last meet on March 31 will carry into a strong performance at their toughest invite yet.\nOn March 31, the teams had four athletes qualify for the regional meet.\nFor the men, sophomore Jordan Kyle ran a personal best in qualifying with a time of 14:03.83 in the 5,000-meter run. Freshmen thrower Eric Werskey also qualified for the regional meet. He posted a mark of 16.85 meters in the shot put.\nThe women’s side also had two qualifiers. Senior Courtney Johnson sprinted her way in to the meet with a time of 13.63 seconds in the 100-meter dash. Senior Jessica Gall had probably the best day of all of the Hoosiers though, as she posted a time of 33:54.65 in the 10,000-meter run. That time was a personal best for Gall and would place her second all-time at IU in the 10,000-meters.\nTo carry this momentum will be difficult, however, as the temperature in Columbia will be in the low 40s and wet, according to Weather.com, vastly different from the weather of Palo Alto, Calif., where they competed March 31.