Three IU athletes to compete at Track and Field Championships

IU junior distance runner Wendi Robinson knew she would probably be\nspending her spring break in Arkansas on Jan. 25. \nIt was then she won the 5000-meter run at the Gladstein Invitational in 16:16.23,\nthe fastest 5000-meter mark in the nation at the time.\nArkansas will play host to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships March 14-15 at the Randal Tyson Track Center in\nFayetteville. On Monday the NCAA track and field committee revealed the\n568 combined men and women student- athletes that will make up the\nchampionship field.\nJoining Robinson will be teammates junior Molly Beckwith in the 800-meter run and freshmen Stephanie Chin in the pole vault.\nBeckwith had to wait a lot longer than Robinson to know if she would be\nselected. Beckwith ran a career-best and IU school record time of 2:06.67 in the 800-meter run at the Alex Wilson Invitational.\nEven with the record time, Beckwith still didn’t know if it would be enough to get in to the national meet, but when the entries were released, Beckwith slipped in, securing the final spot in the event.\nChin was also not guaranteed a spot going into the meet at Notre Dame last weekend. Chin had vaulted a school-record 4.12 meters at the Meyo Invite earlier in the season, but was still on the bubble to get in.\nThe freshman pole vaulter helped herself out by vaulting two centimeters higher, to raise\nher qualifying mark to 4.14 meters. The NCAA's cutoff mark was 4.13 meters.\nThe men also wrapped up their indoor season last weekend at the Alex\nWilson Invitational in South Bend. Going in, senior jumper Kyle Jenkins\nhad high hopes of improving his mark of 15.76 meters to make it to the\nchampionships, but jumped just 15.49 meters in the triple jump event.\nJenkins season-best was just two centimeters off of the last accepted qualifying entry into the national meet.\nSophomore pole vaulter Vera Neuenswander also had a provisional qualifying mark of 4.05 meters going into the Notre Dame meet, but could not improve upon the performance and was not selected to go to\nArkansas. Neuenswander, who finished 12th last year at NCAA’s and fourth at the conference championships this year was awarded her second Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.\nFor more on the events, check back on idsnews.com for a recap and in next week's Indiana Daily Student for full coverage.