Indiana men’s track and field headed north to South Bend, Indiana, for Notre Dame’s Meyo Invitational over the weekend. Despite missing Friday’s events due to travel difficulties, the Hoosiers concluded the meet on a high note Saturday.
With an eye towards the Big Ten and NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, many of Indiana’s top performers rested this meet. The Hoosiers did not compete in any field events and only sent a few athletes into a handful of track events.
“You know the NCAA will take care of itself because you got to get qualified first,” head coach Ron Helmer said. “We did have some kids take this weekend off. But that was part of our plan: just try to gather up, regroup a little, get a little training done and take advantage of the next couple of weekends.”
The mile run kicked off Saturday’s events. Junior Keelan Grant recorded a personal best time of 4:10.01, good for 13th place. In the 400-meter dash, senior Shaton Vaughn nabbed a fourth-place finish with a time of 48.89.
In the only first-place finish of the day for Indiana, freshman Camden Marshall ran 1:49.16 in the 800-meter race, a personal best for the Corydon, Indiana native.
“It’s definitely kinda surreal where I'm at now to be able to be actually competitive with some bigger schools,” Camden said. “In high school, I could go out, jog, and win by thirty seconds. Now I can (get personal records) by five seconds and not even win the race. That’s a big adjustment in itself.”
The last event for the Hoosiers was the 4x400 meter relay, and the team of Vaughn, junior Micah Camble, redshirt sophomore Parker Raymond and graduate student Kenny Benton captured a second-place finish. Their combined time of 3:09.69 was good for third all-time in the program’s history.
“The Big Ten is when we will have everybody lined up and hopefully have everybody ready to go,” Helmer said. “(Right now it’s) very much an individual thing, and until they start counting points, I’m perfectly happy to do what’s best for each individual.”
The Hoosiers will return to Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse for the final home meet of the indoor season next Friday. The team will also send a group of athletes to the Windy City Invitational on Saturday in Chicago.
