IU continues strong season

Throughout this season, the IU track and field team has gotten top performances from its top athletes.

At the Tyson Invitational this past weekend, things were no different.

Junior Faith Sherrill, who broke the IU women’s shot put record earlier this year, continued to rewrite the school’s record books. Her 20-meter toss in the weight throw was the best in IU history and earned her an NCAA automatic qualifying mark.

Like Sherrill, senior Jeff Coover continued his dominating season in Arkansas. Coover won the pole vault last year at Tyson and did so again this year, clearing a career-best matching height of 5.50 meters. Clearing this height took Coover 42 attempts the first time, but the La Jolla, Calif. native needed only three tries to do it again.

Coover’s victory contributed to the three Hoosiers’ titles earned at the Tyson Invitational to go along with nine NCAA qualifying marks.

IU track athletes also made their presence known throughout the two-day competition.

The men’s distance medley relay team edged out Baylor by .07 seconds to earn a come-from-behind victory. The team, comprised of junior De’Sean Turner, sophomore Daniel Stockberger, senior Martin Stephen and freshman Andy Bayer, got its strongest performance from its youngest member. The Hoosiers were trailing 3.5 seconds when Bayer received the baton and ran his 1,600 meter leg of the race in 3:58.48 for the win.

“Before I got the baton I looked up at the clock and knew we were a few seconds behind where we wanted to be,” Bayer said. “But that didn’t change my race plan. I knew what I had to do.”

IU coach Ron Helmer said the importance of the Tyson Invitational extends beyond the numbers.

“Time is important and performance is important,” Helmer said. “But, in some cases, it was how they handled themselves at this level of competition and how they executed their race plan.”