The IU women’s track and field team recorded first-place finishes and lifetime bests this past weekend at the University of Arkansas’ Tyson Invitational, the Iowa State Classic, and Hoosier Hills.
While the team experienced success, a main goal of this weekend was to achieve qualifying marks for the upcoming Big Ten championships approaching in two weeks and theNCAA indoor championships in March.
Senior Leah Moran, who already had the program record with a mark of 13.14 meters in the triple jump, was able to beat her own distance twice in one series at the Tyson invitational. Moran had a mark of 13.17 meters in her second attempt before reaching 13.22 in her fifth attempt to ultimately place third in the triple jump invitational.
Moran placed fifth at the 2019 Tyson Invitational.
“I feel definitely pretty good coming out of it,” Moran said. “Coming to this meet, I was really excited. I did really well at it last year.”
Sophomore Hope Purcell and senior Jenna Jungels both had notable performances in Arkansas alongside Moran.
Purcell placed second in the high jump with a mark of 1.72 meters, while Jungels placed fifth in the long jump with a mark of 6.02 meters.
While the team’s jumpers were sent to the Tyson Invitational, the team also ran in middle distance and long-distance races in Ames, Iowa, for the Iowa State Classic. Seniors Joely Pinkston and Mallory Mulzer along with sophomore Jenna Barker competed in the meet.
Pinkston and Mulzer both competed in the 800-meter, finishing at 11th and 18th respectively.
Barker placed sixth with a time of 4:43.64 and was able to pass her previous personal record of 4:48.49 in the women’s mile.
All other athletes stayed in Bloomington for Hoosier Hills, the final home meet of the indoor season.
The group that stayed home for the meet finished with multiple first-place finishes, including freshman Elizabeth Stanhope, junior Kelly Mindak and senior Megan Grabowski.
Stanhope won her first event of the season in the 600-meter with a time of 1:31.07.
Mindak placed first in the 800-meter fast section with a time of 2:12.38.
Grabowski took both the top qualifying spot in the preliminary race and the first-place finish in the finals of the 60-meter dash with times of 7.50 and 7.49 respectively.
The 4x400-meter relay team, consisting of Stanhope, Mindak, freshmen Lauren Thomas and freshman Beth Barnes, placed second with a time of 3:56.73.
The team will return to action for its final regular-season indoor meet Saturday at the University of Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational.
