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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Scattered Hoosiers still successful in busy weekend

Sports Filler

IU men’s track and field sent athletes to the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, the Longhorn Invitational in Texas and the Redhawk Invitational in Ohio this weekend, and the team won at least one event in all three locations.

The biggest of the three competitions, the Penn Relays, provided two of the most intense races of the weekend, IU Coach Ron Helmer said. After coming up just short in the distance medley relay and 4x1600-meter, Helmer said he still thought his guys ran hard.

“We got beat by less than a second in both races,” Helmer said. “Coming into the final turn, we had a shot to win each time. To come in second isn’t any fun, but we still beat a lot of good teams.”

The Oregon Ducks were the team that defeated the Hoosiers in both relays. IU's 4x1600m team consisted of seniors Jason Crist and Matt Schwartzer, freshman Kyle Mau and junior Joe Murphy. They finished with a time of 16:22.48.

The IU DMR team of Murphy, Mau, sophomore Adam Wallace and junior Jordan Huntoon finished with the fifth fastest time in school history at 9:33.10. IU also ran in the 4x800m relay and finished in 10th place.

Murphy competed in all three relays for the Hoosiers. He led off in the DMR and anchored the 4xmile squad. Helmer said he was very impressed with the effort he made.

“He was really good in the first two,” Helmer said. “He wasn’t as sharp in the 4x800, but we were stretching him very thin, so that happens.”

This was the last time IU will compete in these kind of races this year because the Big Ten meet only has the traditional relays, the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter. Helmer said he enjoyed the trip and thinks his team did as well.

“It was a lot of fun and gave us a chance to do something a little bit different,” Helmer said. “It’s a big deal to our athletes and provides them with a unique environment to compete in.”

The Hoosiers were also successful in the individual events at Penn. Senior Jeremy Coughler was the collegiate champion in the steeplechase. His time of 8:50.48 was a personal best for him in this event.

Sophomore Bryce Millar finished sixth in the 5,000-meter run, and freshman William Session finished fifth in the finals of 110-meter hurdles after winning his qualifying heat the day before. Helmer had plenty of praise for his young freshman.

“He ran against some good athletes in the finals of a really high-level hurdle race,” Helmer said. “For him as a freshman to go out in a difficult environment, set a PR on Friday and then come back and have a solid run in the finals was outstanding.”

Session was the only men’s sprinter to compete at the relays but wasn’t the only Hoosier sprinter to perform well during the weekend. IU had four different winners come back from the Redhawk Invitational in Ohio.

Helmer said senior Zach Reitzug had the biggest breakthrough performance among the athletes who traveled elsewhere. Reitzug ran a career-best 51.41 to win the 400-meter hurdles.

Fellow senior Adrian Mable won the 110m hurdles with a time of 15 seconds flat. Sophomores Tyler Bellaire and Markevious Roach won the 100-meter dash and 400-meter dash, respectively.

“There were a few positives from Ohio,” Helmer said. “The kids competed hard, and I think we got done what we needed to. We certainly got more done than we would have if we had given them a relay carry or two.”

In the meantime, IU’s field athletes were competing at the Longhorn Invitational, where Helmer said the team dealt with poor weather at times.

The weather didn’t stop sophomore Willie Morrison from winning yet again in the shot put. Junior Andrew Miller took sixth place in the hammer throw. Junior Paul Galas finished fourth in the high jump, and sophomore Treyton Harris took sixth in the long jump.

“We had some good things come out of both of those places,” Helmer said. “They had to move the schedule around due to the weather, which always makes things a bit harder, but I still liked what we got from them.”

IU has the Billy Hayes Invitational coming up at home May 5, and then it’s time for the postseason, beginning with the Big Ten Championships.

“We are going into finals week, which is always tricky, and also have graduation coming up for our seniors,” Helmer said. “We are still looking for NCAA-qualifying marks in some places, but we also need our best athletes to get dialed in and stay confident that the big performances are coming.”

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