Track and field heats up in start of season

The track and field season has started on a good note.

This past weekend, the men’s and women’s teams won the Indiana-Purdue dual meet for the fourth straight year.

There are high expectations for the men’s team, due to the recent No. 7 preseason ranking.

This team deserves just as much recognition and respect on its own campus as it does on the national level.

They earned the ranking due to senior Derek Drouin’s high jump performances and the experienced class of distance runners.

Drouin returns after a solid junior year when he recorded both his third NCAA title and his fourth Big Ten title in the high jump. In addition, he received a bronze medal in the high jump at the 2012 London Olympics.

The athlete from Ontario, Canada, seems prepared to lead the high jumping field in the NCAA during his final year of college.

Middle-distance runner Lance Roller, a graduate student at the end of his eligibility for collegiate sports, is another athlete to watch this year.

He had a stellar undergraduate career at University of Virginia, where he was a two-time All-American and eight-time All-ACC performer.   

Roller has already helped the Hoosiers with his win in the men’s 600-meter race at the IU-Purdue dual last weekend.

Roller finished the race in 1 minute, 18.25 seconds, which was 2.54 seconds better than the second-place finisher and the second-fastest time in IU history.

The men’s team won nine of 16 events in the dual.

The women’s team, unfortunately, was not ranked in the preseason’s top 25.

The women’s team won by a close margin of 69-67 in overall points.

Senior distance runner Kelsey Duerksen led the way with her wins in the mile and 800-meter events.

Duerksen’s mile time of 4:44.84 is the best in the Big Ten so far this season.

The women’s team finished first, second and third in the mile and first and second in the 800-meter, which gave it 17 points.

Early season success in these distance events will help give confidence to the team moving forward.

This year will be a major test for the men’s team to see how they can compete against the nation’s top teams.

As a student, you should feel obligated to give support to the Olympics-sports teams, especially if they are very good.

Although the track-and-field are athletes, they are students first. Just like you, they are in classes, take tests and want to graduate on time, difficult tasks even for the average student to complete without worrying about practices and meets.

The opportunity to step out of the “traditional sport” comfort zone and support this team is available to those who want to support these hard-working individuals.

There are two major track and field events in Bloomington taking place during the next two weekends. If you’ve never seen a track and field meet, then this is something you should experience, at least once, while in college.

As students and supporters of IU, we should be united in 24 sports, one University.

— amsiegal@indiana.edu