Kimoto, Drouin, Bayer lead way in 1st home meet

IU played host to the Polytan Invitational this weekend, the first home meet of the outdoor season.

IU Coach Ron Helmer said he was very pleased with how this meet went and was proud of how his team performed.

“This morning I was thinking that we should have traveled somewhere else this weekend because we didn’t have a lot of competition coming here and the weather was going to be bad,” Helmer said. “But the kids rose to the occasion and accepted the challenge of making it happen themselves.”

Highlighting the meet were high jumps by seniors Emma Kimoto and Derek Drouin as well as a 1,500-meter run by fellow senior Andy Bayer.

Kimoto said earlier in the week that her goal was to finally clear 1.83 meters (6 feet) at this meet. She accomplished just that.

That height easily won her the competition and also vaulted her to sole possession of the Big Ten lead.

“I was expecting it to look a lot higher, but since I was jumping at a high bar last week, it helped me to mentally prepare for 1.83 this weekend,” Kimoto said. “And I just really wanted it.”

Kimoto now ranks eighth in Division I this season.

The men’s high jump was just as eventful as Drouin added a centimeter to his outdoor world lead to make it 2.31 meters (7 feet 7 inches). That bar is higher than the one Drouin won the NCAA Outdoor Championship with in his sophomore season.

Kimoto and Drouin won their competition by a combined 16 inches.

“They both respond well to competition, and they kind of just put that out of their mind and executed jumps and they were outstanding,” Helmer said. “They’re getting on a roll at the right time.”

On the track, Bayer showed why he is a defending NCAA 1,500-meter champion as he pulled away in that event to win by more than four seconds. His time of 3:41.52 ranks fifth in Division I and is just .20 off the Big Ten lead. This was his first 1,500-meter run of the outdoor season.

This was also Bayer’s first individual win since a competition in Mexico last summer when he won a 5,000-meter race by 15 seconds.

“He’s doing exactly than what we expected to,” Helmer said. “He actually was faster than what we expected in his first couple splits. He’s rounding into shape in just the right time.”

The next step for the Hoosiers is next weekend’s Penn Relays. The four-day meet will draw about 50,000 athletes from all over the world in what is called the Championships of America.

“We’re just going to relax and enjoy competing until then,” Helmer said. “The Penn Relays isn’t about how fast you run. It’s about who you beat.”