The IU men’s track and field team is off to a hot start early in the 2016-17 season.
The Hoosiers started the season in December with the Hoosier Open. After a lengthy time off for break IU returned to the track in January and won both duals it has competed in so far. IU defeated Tennessee last week and its rival Purdue this past weekend by a final score of 93-41.
IU Coach Ron Helmer said he wants to get his team back to winning championships and competing at the highest level. He said the team’s goal for this season is to finish inside the top three of the Big Ten.
“We would hope to have the ability to go into an NCAA championship meet and be a top-20 team and ultimately a top-10 team on a regular basis,” Helmer said. “It takes one or two great athletes to do that, and right now, our athletes that have the ability to go to a national meet and score six to 10 points as an individual are still young.”
Helmer said these are things IU has accomplished previously, but they have not been accomplished in the past few years. The last time the men’s team won the Big Ten Championship was in 2012.
“I feel like we’ve finally put enough talent into place that we can start doing that again,” Helmer said. “We always have eight to 10 athletes who are going to perform on a high level every time out, but it’s that next eight to 10 people that need to start doing their job and pulling their weight. I’m starting to see more and more of those people having prepared better and are able to make a bigger contribution than they have in the past.”
Helmer said he had stressed the importance of winning during the offseason. He said he would like to start focusing on that more throughout the year to help fix the overall mindset of the team, including the coaching staff.
“I told my coaches that I wanted them to coach skill,” Helmer said. “I wanted them to coach strength, I wanted them to coach speed, and I wanted them to coach fitness, but above all else, I wanted them to coach winning. There is a process, but then there is also the result. The process is great, but it has to lead us to the result and that result has got to be winning.”
The athletes have responded to Helmer’s preseason message by winning every meet they’ve competed in this year. The Hoosiers have earned their victories thanks to a balanced scoring effort in both track and field events.
There are only eight seniors on this team, but Helmer said he still believes they are the leaders. The senior trio of sprinter Diquis Manley, hurdler Adrian Mable and long distance runner Mark Chandler are all Indiana natives and have been around for at least three seasons.
“The older guys aren’t going anywhere,” Helmer said. “They have a lot of time and experience under their belts. Our older kids are still the leaders of the locker room. They set the tone, but respect is respect. Our older kids respect these kinds of efforts from the young ones.”
The young ones are the 29 freshmen and sophomores that account for more than half of the team. Many of them have already found success early on. Sophomores Bryce Millar, Eric Bethea, Treyton Harris and Willie Morrison and freshman Kyle Mau have all won at least one event this year.
“They are there and they are lurking,” Helmer said. “That’s exactly what you need — the young ones who are willing and able to take on a little bit of that burden to relax some of the older ones.”
There is plenty of room for optimism with a young roster like IU’s. The Hoosiers have already been successful this season and are currently ranked No. 1 in the initial dual meet rankings. Coach Helmer said he believes success like this will hopefully lead to a greater level of progression once his young kids develop more physically.
“I don’t know if we can get there this year, but we need to get closer to getting there so that as we grow, people will start to believe that it is coming,” Helmer said. “They’re seeing it, they’re feeling it, but we’re not quite there yet. Right now, we just have to wait for some of those young guys to fully develop. They need to enjoy the contributions they’ve made in the overall team effort.”
