A new direction. That is what IU Coach Ron Helmer has pushed to ?implement in the 2015 season.
“When I made staff changes this year, I knew that the renewed energy we wanted was going to be a long-term thing, not an immediate turnaround,” Helmer said. “I told the team that I mainly expect growth this weekend and for them to go out and compete with these tough teams.”
The 2014 Big Ten Championships presented major, glaring issues for the team. IU placed top-five in just seven events and scored 40.5 points, the program’s second-lowest mark in the last 16 years, after winning the conference in 2012.
Helmer responded to the subpar season by adding four assistant coaches to the staff in 2014, including former IU assistant coach Ed Beathea, who left his head coaching position at Ohio State.
“We’re getting better,” Helmer said. “We aren’t ahead of schedule, but we certainly aren’t behind schedule.”
It hasn’t taken long for the team to see an increase in production. Nine Hoosiers are projected to place top-five in their respective events this weekend, and more than 20 events feature new athletes with top-10 ?records, up from 18 in 2014.
The team is far from lacking star performers, as sophomore middle distance runner Tre’tez Kinnaird and junior pole vaulter Sophie Gutermuth both broke school records this season.
Kinnaird has now contributed to three school records after breaking the 800-meter run record with 1:48.20, good enough for third in the Big Ten, while Gutermuth shattered her previous school record with a vault of 4.26 meters, second-best in the Big Ten.
Another Hoosier projected in the top-five is sophomore Matthew Schwartzer, who ran the third-best 5K in the Big Ten this season and owns the ninth-best 3K in IU history.
“I think if any of us finish in the top-three of any event, people will be surprised because we are all so young,” Schwartzer said of the men’s and women’s distance teams. “Rorey (Hunter) may surprise people, though, since he hasn’t been running as well as last year.”
Schwartzer leads a pack of three top-10 Hoosiers, including senior Evan Esselink and freshman Jeremy Coughler, in the men’s 5K this weekend.
Hunter stands as one of just three seniors on the distance squad and has an accomplished résumé as a Hoosier, finishing last season with All-American honors in the school-record Distance Medley Relay and a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run at the indoor Big Ten Championships. He ran the ninth-best mile in the Big Ten this season.
The heptathlon, which involves seven events performed throughout the two-day competition, comes with pressure. The Hoosiers have a top-five duo in juniors Dylan Anderson and Stephen Keller competing for a Big Ten title.
“Coach Wiseman has when the moment comes, just give it all,” said Keller, who is seeded fourth in the Big Ten. “Every meet before this one has just been preparing us for the ?championships.”
Keller will compete side-by-side with Anderson, who owns the second-best mark in IU history and is projected to place third in the championship.
At the Gladstein Invitational, both teammates topped their personal ?records to move up the school record list. Anderson fell just 256 points shy of the school record, held by Bowerman Award winner Derek Drouin in 2013. Keller fell to fourth on the list after previously standing third, despite improving his total as well.
“A Big Ten championship would be great,” Keller said. “It means that everything we’ve been doing is coming together, and, if Dylan wins it, then I’ll be happy for him because that’s just how it is when you’re competitive friends.”
Sophomore thrower Nakel McClinton said a Big Ten championship would mean everything. She owns the second-best weight throw in IU women’s history and is fifth in the Big Ten this ?season.
“It would score 10 points for the team, which is huge,” McClinton said. “But also, high schoolers watch these things, and when they see that an Indiana girl won the weight throw, they’d be more apt to come to our program.”
McClinton is aiming for a throw of 21 meters this weekend, which would not only set a personal record, shatter the school record and put her in contention for a Big Ten championship, but also send her to the NCAA Division I Championship meet in two weeks.
Regardless of the stage, Helmer said he wants to see improvement, and he expects this year’s point total to exceed last year’s? performance.
“What we’re looking for is growth,” Helmer said. “We’ll just have to accept whatever place that gives us this weekend, knowing that it will propel us to be where we want to be in the future.”
