IU Track faces uphill battle at Hoosier Hills

It was always going to be an uphill battle for IU track and field.

At the Hoosier Hills Invitational on Friday and Saturday, that reality finally began to sink in for IU Coach Ron Helmer and his young team.

Despite earning a total of 39 personal records over the weekend, it was a somber group of IU athletes that gathered onto the Fieldhouse bleachers after the meet.

Helmer told them not be complacent. He told them not be scared.

He told them it wasn’t good enough yet.

“It’s bittersweet because we’ve got 39 people moving forward, and all we can ask people to do is go forward,” Helmer said. “It would be really similar to (IU men’s basketball Coach) Crean telling you we did a really good job with our rebounding, we did a really good job with our shooting percentage, but we just got beat.”

A top-10 national contender for the last four years and a top-20 for the last six, this IU track and field program has become accustomed to seeing its athletes produce championship-caliber performances.

Now with the final weeks waning before championship competition, the younger athletes are beginning to feel fatigued.

The unrelenting winter weather — forcing some to run 90 miles in the wind, slosh and snow — is taking its toll.

Helmer said expectations need to remain high. 

“It takes a lot of energy to maintain a high level of expectation for a large group of people,” he said. “I know lots of coaches who only take what people are willing to give and then jump up and down and act like it’s a wonderful day. In the world we live in, you can’t do that.”

Experienced members like senior Kyla Buckley understand what it takes to achieve high levels of success.

The reigning Big Ten champion in the shot put, Buckley threw for 16.98 meters at Hoosier Hills, eight centimeters better than her championship-winning mark a season ago. 

“It was okay,” she said. “It wasn’t my best.”

Currently, her throw is sixth-best in the nation.

“She knows there’s a big one, she knows she’s fouled a couple huge ones, and she knows that she can be better,” Helmer said. “And if you know you can be better, it shouldn’t matter if you PR or not.”

Helmer said he doesn’t want the team to get wrapped up in performance goals. If his athletes focus on beating their competition then the big marks will follow, he said.
For the younger generation of Hoosiers, the effects of this lesson are already beginning to show.

“They were some words I really needed,” sophomore Cornelius Strickland said. “With me getting the same times, I was struggling, I felt like maybe I wasn’t getting the right action. It really opened my eyes to a lot.”

Strickland was one of six IU event-winners at the Hoosier Hills Invitational. He crossed the finish line first with a time of 6.87 seconds, one-hundredth of a second off his season best in the 60 meter dash. 

Sophomore Sophie Gutermuth, freshmen Drew Volz and Bethany Neeley, the men’s distance medley relay and Buckley all joined him with blue-ribbon finishes at the meet.

“The message that I have to send to them is one of nice job, but let’s make sure that we give ourselves a chance to continue to go,” Helmer said. “I’m accepting of what it is, and I’ll celebrate the 39 PRs.”

Follow reporter Tori Ziege on Twitter @ToriZiege.