Drouin soars to 3rd NCAA title

Junior Derek Drouin’s jump of 7 feet 7.75 inches March 12 in College Station, Texas, did more than give the IU high jumper his third NCAA title.

It gave him his second-straight indoor championship. It tied the Corunna, Ontario, native for the Canadian National Record. It broke his own school record and the all-time Big Ten record.

IU coach Ron Helmer said Drouin’s performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships puts him in an elite group of athletes.

“He won that national championship, then he jumps a bar that tied him for the all-time Canadian record,” Helmer said. “So I think if you look at those statistics, then he’s pretty incredible because that puts him in very, very, very select company. And the great thing that we encourage all of our athletes to get a handle on is being able to perform at those levels when it matters the most.”

And the rest of the nation is taking notice.

Tuesday, Drouin became the first Big Ten field athlete to ever be named National Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The next day, he became one of 10 male track and field athletes to be placed on The Bowerman award watch list.

The Bowerman, which started in 2009, is given to the best overall male and female track and field athlete of the year. Drouin is the first male Big Ten athlete to be put on the award’s watch list.

Helmer said Drouin is able to consistently keep his focus every year because he refuses to let the acknowledgments faze him.

“You ask your athletes to stay on an even keel,” the four-year coach said. “They never get too down when things don’t go well, and they never get too up when things are going great. He’s not out there pumping his chest and going through a whole litany of ‘look at me’ actions — he takes everything in stride. If things aren’t going particularly well he just stays on task, he fixes it, sets the course straight and away he goes.

“He’s a great competitor. He takes great pride in everything he is able to accomplish as a competitor, but he’s not so self-absorbed that it becomes more than what it is. He is very comfortable about what he celebrates, what he gets excited about so that the standard is always set high.”

Drouin was one of 13 Hoosiers to earn All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. At Nationals, sophomore Andy Bayer and junior Andrew Poore placed third and seventh, respectively, in the 3000-meter race, while senior Faith Sherrill took fourth in the shot put.

Despite the national implications of his jump, Drouin said he is glad to bring a title to Bloomington.

“It’s always a big feat to win nationals,” he said. “I am really proud of it, and I am always happy to win a title for IU.”