Track teams begin season with Hoosier Open

It might be the first of the track season, but the 5000-meter race could have plenty of significance for the Hoosiers.

Both men’s and women’s track & field teams will start their season with the Hoosier Open at 6 p.m. today in Gladstein Fieldhouse.

The night will be slightly different than the rest of the season and more reminiscent of traditional indoor track meets. There will be a 55-meter race as opposed to the typical 60 meters. Instead of the usual 200-, 400-, 600- and 800-meter races, there will be 300-, 500- and 1000-meter races. All times will be recorded and converted, though, in case any IU or Big Ten records are broken.

Even with the changes to the meet, the night’s marquee event will belong to the men’s 5000 meters, where they will attempt to qualify for Nationals.

IU Coach Ron Helmer said junior Andy Bayer, senior Ben Hubers, junior Zach Mayhew and senior Andrew Poore will run for the Hoosiers.

“The guys are excited, feeling like they’re good enough, old enough,” Helmer said. “It’s not going to hurt us in any way to take a shot. If we get a couple of people to qualify, then that will take a little bit of pressure off later on. We are still fit coming off a little down time. If I didn’t think we could do it, we wouldn’t.”

The Hoosiers normally run this race in January, sometime after winter break. When Helmer was approached about the possibility of doing it earlier, he discussed it with his runners, who were all for it, he said.

“I think everyone’s excited about getting to run fast one last time before break,” Poore said. “We’re a little disappointed with the way cross-country season ended. We’re looking at this as a chance to redeem ourselves a little bit.”

Men’s cross-country last raced Nov. 21, finishing seventh in the nation for the second consecutive year.

“Since we were all in pretty good shape from cross-country, it made sense to get one good effort in before break when we split up, and we’re away from the track for a while,” Poore said. “Then it’ll give us a chance to enjoy break, if we do qualify for Nationals, and rest for a while. We’re trying to take a big leap in this race, but it’s not too big that we can’t expect to do it.”

As for the entire track team, Helmer said he expects this first meet to be the starting point for a potential Big Ten Championship run after the men finished second last season and the women finished third.

“I think we have a shot,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of events where we can score a lot of points. There are going to be some fun things happening. All we want is
a shot.”