Track and field places first in 2 separate events

The 120th running of the Penn Relay Carnival in Philadelphia welcomed the IU track and field team this weekend to join in one of the most historic and prestigious track and field meets worldwide.

The Hoosiers placed first in two events at the highest-attended meet in the United States, with crowds of more than 20,000 the first day of competition.

Thursday’s first-place finishes included the ninth-best discus throw in IU history by freshman Nakel McClinton.

“Nakel McClinton had a really good discus competition,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “It’s always challenging performing there. It’s all about managing the chaos of the meet.”

Sophomore Sydney Clute took the other top prize for the Hoosiers, winning the college pole vault with a season best vault of 4.08 meters. The clearance was also the fifth-best in program history.

The championship section of the pole vault was taken by senior Kelsie Ahbe, who finished second with a mark of 4.30 meters.

Junior Drew Volz and sophomore Robert Lewis closed out strong performances in the event, finishing fifth in the men’s championship pole vault and third in the men’s college pole vault, respectively.

“It’s important that you have good things happen,” Helmer said. “That way, people can use the momentum created by those good things to propel them forward.”

Continuing that line of success, the Hoosiers were spurred on by top-10 performances in the men’s 4x800, 4xmile and distance medley relays.

The relays kicked off Friday with junior Rorey Hunter, who anchored the third-place
distance medley at the NCAA Indoor Championships to a fifth-place finish at the Penn Relays.

Hunter crossed the finish line at nine minutes and 34.60 seconds for the sixth-best relay in school history, clocking 4:01.15 in the mile.

Relay counterpart Tre’tez Kinnaird also posted quick splits, running sub-one minute and 49 seconds in the 800 meter in both the distance medley relay and the 4x800.

The freshman and junior continue to be two of the premier athletes on the IU Track and Field team, Helmer said.

“When everything else is not going quite like you want it to, you can fix every problem you have by just going out and competing hard,” Helmer said. “That’s what those guys have learned how to do.”

Hunter and Kinnaird reunited on the men’s 4x800 relay Saturday, leading teammates Jordan Gornall and Robby Nierman to an eighth-place finish in the championship section.

Their performance was complemented by another eighth-place finish in the 4xmile, run by freshman Jason Crist, junior Nolan Fife, freshman Matt Schwartzer and sophomore Owen Skeete.

“Those four guys all went out and ran extremely well,” Helmer said. “I thought they competed hard, considering we didn’t have two of our best milers on that relay.”

Despite a thread of talented performances across three days competing at Franklin Field, Helmer said the team never quite found its optimal rhythm.

“There were enough good things for us to feel good about what we did, but I think in a lot of spots we’re better than what we performed,” he said. “We’re used to coming to the big stage and having people step up, and we just didn’t do that as consistently as I would’ve hoped.”