Hoosier track team competes at home for 1st time this spring

The IU men’s and women’s track and field squads will be back at it again this weekend, as the Hoosiers will compete at home at the Polytan Invitational at Billy Hayes Track in Bloomington.

The events will take place on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. However, four Hoosiers from the men’s squad  – Adrien Dannemiller, Andy Weatherford, Andrew Poore and De’Sean Turner – will be traveling to Princeton, N.J. to compete in the Larry Ellis Invitational as a distance medley relay group.

“They’ll go run well,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “I may line one of them up (Saturday night). I may use one as a rabbit here or there.”

Once that group returns home, they will be witnesses to the first home meet for the Hoosiers since February.

Helmer hopes that his athletes use the home environment to their own advantage.

“I would hope they’d take a little bit of pride in running well at home when there’s more people watching them,” Helmer said.

Which athletes will be accepting that challenge remains a mystery, but Helmer makes it clear to his athletes that they have the opportunity to improve each and every day through hard work and discipline.

“We put that challenge out there every week,” Helmer said. “Every meet, what we’re trying to get people to understand is that they have to be better than just good enough.”

One athlete who has gone above and beyond that challenge is redshirt junior sprinter Chris Vaughn, who moonlights as an author.

“If I’m running the 400 meters this weekend, I hope I hit that 46-second goal that I’ve been aiming for,” Vaughn said. “I just hope we run really fast and hit some big time personal records again.”

Vaughn is happy with the fact that he will have the opportunity to hit that mark at home.

“We’re familiar with the track and we feel comfortable,” Vaughn said. “I definitely think it’s a slight advantage.”

The Polytan Invitational will give Vaughn a chance to improve on his already impressive marks. He went so far as to say he could he could get a lot better.

“I really would like to get my time in the open 400 down to 46 flat,” Vaughn said.

His efforts are also a part of a concentrated effort to claim the Big Ten Conference Outdoor Title, after the Hoosier men’s squad won the indoor title.

“I really do think that we have a talented group of guys,” Vaughn said. “I think we can go out there and repeat an outdoor victory.”

Helmer also believes his men’s squad certainly has a chance to claim an outdoor title, but he said he does not need to remind the squad about its indoor title. Rather, it’s a process of evolving.

“I think they appreciated what they did indoors, and then we step aside and let things evolve,” Helmer said. “We’re not talking at all about anything other than training hard and going out and competing.”

The lone home meet of the outdoor season will be an excellent opportunity for the Hoosiers to do just that.