The distance events will be Friday while Saturday will consist of the shorter track and field events.
The meet in Palo Alto, Calif., features several collegiate and professional athletes from across the country, and IU plans to send the majority of its roster, despite traditionally sending only distance runners.
“We aren’t sending quite as many as we did to Arizona State,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “Stanford offers high-quality competition, though, so we are trying to get the best marks and times on the board as possible.”
Putting quality marks and times on the board early in the season helps more athletes qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships later in the season. IU sent just four athletes to the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, a number it hopes to improve.
“It takes a couple of outdoor meets to get adjusted,” Helmer said of the transition between indoor and outdoor seasons. “There’s a comfort level with competing, and this meet will be a step toward that comfort level.”
One athlete who has found that comfort level is junior distance runner Brianna Johnson, who won the women’s 3K steeplechase last weekend.
The steeplechase is only featured in the outdoor season, but Johnson didn’t miss a beat as she ran to a 10:34.98 victory, just the third of her career.
“We’ve been working really hard on steeplechase in the last few months,” said Johnson, who trained in the event during the indoor season while competing in distance races. “It’s paying off because I felt pretty comfortable jumping, so I’m really excited to see what the future is.”
During the indoor season, Johnson ran the mile and the distance medley relay in the Big Ten Championships, where she placed 12th in the mile and 11th in the DMR, while setting personal records in the mile and the 3,000-meter run.
Johnson finished 21st in the women’s 5,000-meter run at the Stanford Invitational last season, but she will be competing in the women’s 3K steeplechase this time around.
“It was nice winning my first steeplechase of the season,” Johnson said. “It helps going into the next race, just having a little confidence.”
Confidence did not stop at the steeplechase, though, as senior sprinter Derrick Morgan ran a personal record of 46.96 seconds in the men’s 400-meter dash. His time was almost an entire second faster than his previous record of 47.68.
“I’m not the biggest fan of indoors,” said Morgan, who finished 13th in the Big Ten 400-meter dash in March. “All of the tracks are 400 meters in outdoors, so you know what you’re getting yourself into. There aren’t any 200-meter or 300-meter tracks.”
Morgan heads a sprinting team that struggled throughout the indoor season, but with several top-five finishes last weekend, the sprinters are looking to improve.
“We’re a pretty young sprinting team, and better times come with more experience,” Morgan said. “I think we’ll be fine. We’re just finding our place, especially the younger guys.”
The Hoosiers enter the invitational looking for improvement, a more intense, yet similar approach to how they entered the indoor season.
“This is just a regular stop for us, but we want to leave with better times and show improvement as a team,” Helmer said.
