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(09/28/12 4:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The men’s and women’s cross country teams will face their first real tests of the year this weekend when they travel to Lawrence, Kan., to run in the Rim Rock Farm Classic.IU Coach Ron Helmer will get his first look at a full strength men’s team with seniors Andy Bayer and Zach Mayhew in the mix as they both get their first competition action of the season.“I tend to be more optimistic than I should be, but I’m also realistic so I know we have the potential to take a couple low numbers with Andy and Zack,” Helmer said.Bayer and Mayhew are the only two members returning from last year’s top seven.The rest of the team has stepped up to give the Hoosier men a deep and competitive squad, Helmer said.Indiana Intercollegiate winner sophomore Evan Esselink will try to contend with the top runners, while teammates junior Robby Nierman, sophomore JR Ricker and senior Nate Morrow will all contend for the coveted spots in the top five.The Hoosier women also come into this meet with two wins under their belt, yet they go into the meet with many questions, Helmer said.With senior Samantha Ginther out with an injury, the rest of the women will look to make a statement.Sophomore Kelsey Duerksen won the first two meets of the season, with a season-best time of 17:51 in the last meet.Senior Caitlin Engel, graduate student Molly Hirt, sophomore Molly Winters and junior Erica Ridderman will run behind Duerkson.“We just need to get into that competitive environment, and we’ll see where we go from there,” Ridderman said.
(09/27/12 2:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ever since the Hoosier women placed 31st in the NCAA Championship meet in 2009, they have had issues coming back.Whether because of injuries or just lack of talent, they have come up short when it mattered, including qualifying for the NCAA meet and struggling in the Big Ten Championship. The team finished 10th in last year’s conference championship meet.This year, the women look to put their demons behind them as they attempt to make it to the NCAAs in Louisville, Ky., in November.“We’ve kept putting things in place and kept working, and we’ve got a good number of girls that have been training now for three to four years and have done some pretty good things on the track, and it’s time for them to collectively start to believe in themselves,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. Through the two meets the women have raced in this season, they may be on the right track.Although the Hoosiers lost top returning runner and senior Samantha Ginther to an early season injury, the women have been able to make up lost ground to provide a very consistent core group of runners.Sophomore Kelsey Duerksen has won both of the early season meets, which are considered a warm-up for the real tests of the season, bettering her winning time by 57 seconds from the Hoosier Invitational to the Indiana Intercollegiate meet in Terre Haute nearly two weeks ago.Behind Duerkson is a strong group of runners, including senior Caitlin Engel, sophomore Molly Winters, graduate student Molly Hirt and junior Erica Ridderman, all of whom came within 40 seconds of Duerkson’s time at Intercollegiates to defeat second-place Purdue, 29-43.“I feel like we have very good team chemistry right now,” said Hirt, who transferred from Notre Dame. “We all don’t care if we’re first or last, we just want to do well for the team and do the best we can to help everyone else.”This weekend’s meet will give Helmer and the women’s team a chance to see how they will do against a higher level of competition. The Hoosiers travel to Lawrence, Kan., to compete in the Rim Rock Farm Classic where they will face fellow Big Ten competitor Michigan, ranked 11th, and Toledo, 22nd.“We’re looking to beat Toledo, and we’re gonna give Michigan a scare (on Saturday),” Winters said. “We’re excited, and we’re hoping to get some at-large points at least, as well as seeing some other girls from the Big Ten.”Helmer isn’t sure whether this girls team will be a top-three team in the Big Ten or qualify for nationals, but he does have confidence that these goals are possible.“I think we have the potential to do those things, and it’s time for us to grow up and mature a little bit and take advantage of the work that we’ve done.”
(09/14/12 4:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU men and women’s cross country teams will travel on Friday to the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terra Haute to take on the rest of the state at the Indiana Intercollegiate meet.After a second-place finish last year, the men will come back to try to win the meet for the fourth time in the past five years.Defending NCAA Champion and All-American Andy Bayer and fellow senior Zach Mayhew did not race at last weekend’s Indiana Open and will sit out again this week.Sophomore Evan Esselink, who won the Indiana Open 8K in 25:32.6, will run for the men along with junior Robby Nierman and sophomore JR Ricker.“I can’t really see anyone beating us,” Esselink said. “I just don’t think it’s even going to be a contest...I think we’re all in a good position right now.”The second meet at intercollegiates will also provide the chance to see the underclassmen, like Esselink and Ricker, and decide who will be in the top seven for the team.After last season, the Hoosier cross country lost five of their top seven including Ben Hubers, De’Sean Turner, Andrew Poore and Andy Weatherford.While they have lost so much, runners on the team said they believe this team can still achieve greatness.“I don’t like to hear from people that IU lost five of their top guys,” Esselink said. “We’re older now, and our team is, I think, is stronger than last year. I think a lot of people are in for a surprise.”Helmer also said he thinks the men’s team will be just as good as last year, and that he believes this is one of the most motivated teams he’s ever coached.“We’ve got eight to 10 candidates for the spots,” Helmer said. “They’re as motivated as any group I’ve had to prove themselves and take their turn.”The Hoosier women are looking to bring in their fourth consecutive win at intercollegiate.The women will look to overcome the loss of senior Samantha Ginther who is hampered with an injury.“We can beat a lot of people, but we can’t beat the people that matter in order to put ourselves at the national level,” Helmer said. “What I know is that we keep putting things in place and we keep working. We’ve got a good number of girls now who have been training for three to four years, and it’s time for them to collectively start to believe in themselves.”Indiana Open winner and sophomore Kelsey Duerkson will look to repeat this week along with help from both graduate student Molly Hirt and sophomore Molly Winters.
(09/14/12 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Ron Helmer took the lead as head coach of IU’s cross country and track and field teams in 2007, he was ready for the challenge of rebuilding a program. With the program’s glory days of the 1990s and running legend Bob Kennedy behind it, Helmer was faced with teaching a young men’s team how to win and teaching the women’s team to be consistent.“It was a challenge to rebuild something, but rebuilding is sometimes easier than building,” Helmer said. “Somebody at least associates success in cross country and track and field with Indiana University because there had been success here, which is why I felt this was the challenge I wanted.”Prior to having success with the Hoosiers, Helmer was already an established coach in the running world.After being named the high school Virginia Cross Country Coach of the Year twice in the 1980s, Helmer took an offer to help build the women’s cross country team at Georgetown University.In his 16 years with the Hoyas, Helmer helped the team to 22 top-ten finishes at the NCAA Championships, including a streak of 15 straight, as well as 342 All-America recognitions for his athletes.“My initial job at Georgetown was to develop the women’s program and it didn’t have tradition and it wasn’t successful,” Helmer said. “So we took that program from virtually being non-competitive to being a Big East Conference Championship team and seven times in the top four at the National Championship.”When he took the job in Bloomington, he inherited a men’s team with seven freshmen, including recent graduates De’Sean Turner and Ben Hubers. Helmer’s attitude helped the young men’s team return to the NCAA Championship for the first time in two years.He made an instant impact with the women’s team as he instilled the value of consistency with the runners.Since that season, Helmer has been able to bring the Hoosiers to the forefront of the cross country and track world, making them a constant presence in the NCAA as the men placed 7th overall last year, the best finish in Helmer’s tenure at IU.Senior Andy Bayer, the defending NCAA Champion in the 1500-meter race, said he loves running under Helmer’s leadership.“He obviously knows what he’s doing,” Bayer said. “It’s pretty easy to be in the program here because you don’t really second guess anything he does.”As for this upcoming season, Helmer has high hopes for both teams. With Bayer and senior Zack Mayhew returning as the only members of the core group that went to nationals, spots are open for underclassmen to make a push onto the team.“We’ve got eight to 10 candidates for those three spots and that group has worked harder than any group I’ve ever had,” Helmer said. “The encouraging thing is they’re not just trying to go back and be 7th at the national meet again, they’re trying to go back and find a way to win it.”While the women have not returned to a national championship yet, Helmer still believes in them.“We’ve got a couple girls now who have trained for three or four years and it’s time for them to collectively believe in themselves and give themselves a chance,” Helmer said.
(09/11/12 3:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While the Hoosier men’s cross country team was celebrating its second consecutive seventh place finish at the NCAA Championships last November, IU Coach Ron Helmer and the rest of the IU cross country fans were left to wonder if they could come back in 2012 just as strong.Five of the team’s top seven runners including Andrew Poore and Ben Hubers graduated following last season. Now, Helmer is faced with the tough decision of finding runners to fill the five open spots for this upcoming season.But Evan Esselink, a sophomore from Ontario, Canada, thinks this team has the potential to be better than last year’s squad. “I don’t like hearing from people that IU lost five of their top guys because it doesn’t matter,” Esselink said. “We’re older now and our team I think is stronger than last year.”Esselink, who won Saturday’s Indiana Open 8K with a time of 25:32.6, is one of several men competing to take a spot in the top seven along with fellow sophomore JR Ricker and junior Robby Nierman.In cross country, seven runners per team are entered in every race. When the race is over, the top five scores are added up to give the team a total score.The pressure is on to see which of the underclassmen will take a spot in the top seven to join All-American and defending 1,500-meter NCAA Champion senior Andy Bayer, as well as returning senior, Zach Mayhew.While Helmer mainly used Saturday’s race as a workout for his runners, Ricker, who came in fourth for the team, said he saw the event as a good way to break the ice for the season.“I wanted to feel better considering it was just workout, but I wasn’t mad about it at all,” Ricker said. “I took away a lot of good things from it.”Good things are all Helmer has seen with this group, he said. Helmer also said he increased the mileage for his runners this summer, and now he considers them one of the best squad’s he’s had since he came to IU.“This group has probably done more work than any group that I’ve had over the summer,” Helmer said. “They’ve probably are as motivated as any group I’ve had to prove themselves and have their turn, and the encouraging thing is they’re not just trying to go back and be seventh at the national meet again, they’re trying to go back and find a way to win it.”Helmer will get another chance to watch the men this weekend when the team goes to Terre Haute for the Indiana Intercollegiates. The Hoosiers will face Purdue and Indiana State in another early season test. While it may be looking too far ahead, Esselink said he believes this team will show how good they are in upcoming meets.“I feel like the team is a lot close than we’ve ever been,” Esselink said. “I think we’re a good set team right now and there’s no reason why we can’t be on that podium at Nationals.”
(08/16/12 1:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On July 1, IU distance runner Andy Bayer closed in on qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team at the 1500-meter finals of the U.S. Olympic Trials at the University of Oregon.After escaping ahead of the pack, Bayer raced down the rail toward Andrew Wheating and crossed the line in fourth place, just 0.56 seconds away from qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. “I think I could have been top three if I had positioned myself a little bit better, but that will come with time and learning,” Bayer said. “Coming out of the race in fourth, I wasn’t mad. I was really happy that I had competed that well against that field.”Bayer came to IU as a non-scholarship athlete, but he said he believed then IU’s revamped program, led by IU Coach Ron Helmer, would help him mature into a better runner. Since he was redshirted his freshman year, Bayer earned a scholarship, became a four-time Big Ten Champion, and won the NCAA Championship in the mile this summer.As students started to leave Bloomington for the summer in May, Bayer was still in town preparing for the outdoor championship season in track. Earlier this year, he won the Big Ten Indoor Championships in the 3000-meter and 1500.Bayer won the mile at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in May, setting him up for one of the biggest challenges of his summer: the NCAA championships in June.In his attempt to earn a spot in the Olympic Trials, Bayer competed in a field that included three former NCAA Champions and the record-holder for the collegiate indoor mile.The result was one of the closest finishes of the NCAA Championships as Bayer edged Miles Batty from BYU to become the champion in the mile, defeating Batty by one hundredth of a second at the finish line. His time of 3:39.95 was good for the Olympic Trial “B” time,which would send him to the trials if his time beat enough U.S. opponents.“It was a very emotional and positive thing for him,” Helmer said. “We then started looking at the lists for the trials and all the sudden, his time wasn’t good enough to get him in. While he was emotionally empty, we came back the week after the NCAA meet and ran our own race to get him the time, and he did it.”Bayer ran a mile in less than 3:39 in the NCAA Championships race, which automatically reserved him a spot in the Olympic Trials.While Bayer did not run well enough at the trials to represent the U.S. in London this summer, he did get a chance to wear the USA uniform in Mexico at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association U-23 Championships.In his only race at the NACAC, his last of the season, Bayer broke away from the field with a few laps remaining and won the 5000-meter by 15 seconds.“The race itself probably wasn’t the most competitive I’ve ever been in, but it was fun to be with the rest of the U.S. team,” Bayer said. “Not many people get the honor of representing the country, so you definitely want to seize the opportunity, but overall, it was a really great experience.”