The Hoosiers will face their largest test of the season so far, and perhaps of all-time for the program, this weekend in Bloomington at the IU Relays.
The meet will serve as a test for how the team currently stands against nationally-ranked competition.
“This’ll be maybe the best meet we’ve had since I’ve been here,” IU head coach Ron Helmer said. “Every event is really good and then some post-collegiate runners are really good.”
The team is coming off an impressive showing at the Gladstein Invitational in Bloomington with multiple first place finishes.
Teams such as Wisconsin, Illinois, the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi, Florida State University, Iowa State University and the University of Southern Illinois will be competing at the IU relays.
The Hoosier men’s team is ranked No. 6 in the country while the women are unranked heading into the invitational.The team will compete
Multiple teams will enter the invitational ranked, with the men’s teams being No. 1 Florida State, No. 16 Wisconsin, No. 20 Iowa State and No. 21 Illinois.
The participating women’s teams with top-25 rankings include No.12 Florida State and No. 20 Ole Miss.
Multiple Hoosiers are the first seed for their respective events. Senior Adam Coulon will be vying for his fourth straight first-place finish in the men’s pole vault and senior Jenna Jungels' personal best of 6.17 meters in the long jump is only .01 meters ahead of second-seed IU senior Leah Moran’s.
Ole Miss junior Shey Taiwo, who leads the nation in the women’s weight throw with a distance of 22.46 meters, will be competing at the relays.
IU junior Cooper Williams placed first in the 800-meter at the Vanderbilt Invitational but faces tough competition from Iowa State senior Festus Lagat. With a time of 1:47.55 set at the Cyclone Open, Lagat narrowly edges out Williams’ winning time of 1:47.84 at Vanderbilt.
IU senior Khayla Dawson leads the country in the women’s shot put with a distance of 17.47 meters set at the Vanderbilt Invitational and is seeded first among collegiate competition. She is second only to professional Jeneva Stevens of the New York Athletic Club.
“I think there’ll be a collegiate record or two broken, and I think there’ll be two, three, four fieldhouse records broken,” Helmer said. “Our fieldhouse records are really strong, so a high-quality field all the way around.”
Post-collegiate participants will include former IU and current Nike athlete Andy Bayer, who will be competing in the one mile, and Josh Freeman of Velaasa Track Club, who will be competing in the shot put.
The meet will begin at 5 p.m. Friday and continue at 9:05 a.m. Saturday.
