This will be the team’s first meet away from Gladstein Fieldhouse since ?June 2014.
“A few athletes could set marks that could get them to nationals,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “But we really just want to progress and be competitive for Big Tens.”
The Big Ten Indoor Championships are three weeks after the Meyo Invitational, and the Hoosiers already have 40 marks and times placed in the top 10 of their respective events in the Big Ten, more than any other school in the conference.
IU looks to set faster times on a track suited for faster speeds, with just five athletes qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The team will look to increase that total while competing in Notre Dame’s Loftus Sports Center, known for its flat track speed and length, being one-fifth of a mile long compared to IU’s one-eighth mile track.
The IU men’s distance medley relay broke the school record in this facility in 2014.
“Most indoor flat tracks are 300 meters,” said senior Evan Esselink, IU’s top 3000 meter runner and second in the Big Ten 5000 meter. “Usually those run a lot faster than the bank track that we have here because this 200-meter indoor bank track is really similar to an ?outdoor 400.”
Two athletes are within five spots from qualifying for nationals, sophomore Jeremy Coughler in the 3000 meter and sophomore Nakel McClinton, who threw the second-farthest weight throw in IU women’s history at the IU Relays.
Notre Dame has six athletes with nationally qualifying marks and times and four athletes within five spots of qualifying times.
“We’re facing some higher competition this week,” Helmer said. “Hopefully that can push them to reach higher times and improve on what they have already done this season.”
The Hoosiers will have a preview of the talented Big Ten conference in this invitational, as various athletes from Purdue, Michigan State and Ohio State will compete.
Athletes from Western Kentucky, Loyola (Ill.) and Kent State, all schools that competed in the Gladstein Invitational and IU Relays, will perform as well.
The 2014 Meyo Invitational proved to produce tough competition, as then-freshman Tre’tez Kinnaird was the only individual Hoosier to win an event when he won the men’s 800-meter run.
The Invitational will feature a 3000-meter event named after Ryan Shay, a Notre Dame alum.
Shay ran the men’s 5000 meter and 10,000 meter races in his time for the Irish and won the 2001 NCAA men’s 10,000 meter with a time of 29:05.44.
Shay died of a heart attack at the age of 28 when he collapsed during the 2007 Olympic marathon trials.
Mark Chandler finished ninth for IU in the 2014 Ryan Shay 3K.
