Hoosiers hope to improve at Outdoor Big Tens

Junior Audrey Smoot did the unthinkable in March when she won the Indoor Big Ten Championship in the 600-meter run after being seeded last out of nine runners, including a former NCAA champion.\nSenior Kiwan Lawson hopes the men’s track team can repeat Smoot’s indoor performance by jumping from a ninth-place finish at the Indoor Big Ten Championships to first when the Hoosiers travel to Champaign, Ill., for the Outdoor Big Ten Championships this weekend. The women’s team, who also finished ninth at the Indoor Big Tens, will be looking to improve at the Outdoor Big Tens. \nAlso, In order to claim the title, the men’s team will have to knock off Wisconsin, the No. 1-ranked team in the conference. The Badger men will be gunning for a record fifth-consecutive triple crown – conference titles in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track; this does not deter Lawson from being confident about the Hoosiers’ chances, however.\n“We have a chance, if not more of a chance than anybody else, to dethrone Wisconsin,” he said. “If we have a glorious day, we can be Big Ten Champions.”\nDespite being the defending champions, Ed Nuttycombe, Wisconsin men’s track and field head coach, acknowledged it will not be easy for his team to win.\n“As I’ve said in the past, it’s going to be a very competitive meet,” he said in a statement.\nThe Badgers won last year’s meet with a score of 145.5 points, but Nuttycombe said this year he thinks 110-120 points will do it.\nLawson did not have indoor eligibility and did not compete at the Indoor Big Ten Championships in March, but as the reigning champion and top-ranked long jumper in the Big Ten so far this season, he said he is excited about the meet.\n“Like I told everybody, the king is back, so we’ll see how it goes this time around,” he said.\nLawson has the stats to support his confidence. Looking at the top 10 lists for each event in the Big Ten, Hoosier names or relay teams appear on them a combined 22 times, including three events in which they are ranked first.\nIU Coach Ron Helmer said he thinks his men’s team will definitely do better and could score 100 or more points, but he said he is uncertain how much better the team can perform.\n“I don’t know how as a group they are going to respond when all of the sudden the points start to add up and we have a chance to do really, really well,” he said.\nOn the women’s side, Helmer said the team could do better, but the team’s strengths overlap with a lot of other teams’ strengths.\nThe 800-meter dash will feature a field of runners in which the top 10 all have bettered the regional qualifying mark of 2:09.8. Helmer said although Junior Molly Beckwith is among the leaders, she could run really well but not place high.\n“Molly’s tough, but it’s probably the best 800 conference in the country,” he said. “She could run one of the top 10 or 12 times in the country and be fourth or fifth in this race.”\nJoining Beckwith in the 800 will be fellow juniors Caity Lauer and Audrey Smoot, who Helmer said he believes can secure regional-qualifying times for themselves in the race.\nSmoot said she has learned from the race she unexpectedly won at the indoor championships and that knowledge will help her this weekend.\n“From that experience, I learned that anything can happen,” she said. “Just go out there, race, try to hit your PR and you can’t control what anyone else does.”\nBoth the men’s and women’s teams will try to do just that, and if things fall into place, Lawson and the Hoosiers could see a dramatic improvement.\n“If everyone gives it their all just beating that one person in front of them, I think the points can collectively add up and we can have a run for a Big Ten Championship,” he said.