Runner named athlete of week

Although she lost twice during the women's track and field meet against Ohio State Saturday, sophomore sprinter Rachelle Boone was named Big Ten Athlete of the Week. \nIn IU's 89-70 win against the Buckeyes, Boone placed second in the 60- and 200-meter dashes. She lost both races to senior teammate Lorraine Dunlop, but ran two career-best times in the events and the second-best time, 7.44 seconds, in IU history in the 60-meter dash.\n"It's a credit to our sprint group that she can get the award after finishing second to a teammate," coach Randy Heisler said. "She's been training hard. I know the training for her and the other sprinters is really focused on them running fast at the end of the season. Once we back out of the weight room, they can expect to run faster."\nThe sprinters' training requires more leg lifts and bench pressing than last year and visits to the weight room three times a week, Boone said. They often lift before running in Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse.\n"I think it's better than the training program we had last year because people are getting a lot faster early on in the season," said Boone, whose time in the 60-meter dash is also an NCAA provisional qualifying mark. "Lorraine's (Dunlop) running times are now like those that she ran toward the end or middle of last season."\nOther Hoosiers are showing positive results to the intensive training. Junior Tia Trent won the 400-meter dash against Michigan and Ohio State with a career-best time of 55.35 seconds against the Buckeyes. Sophomore Danielle Carruthers won the 60-meter hurdles against Ohio State with an NCAA provisional time of 8.40 seconds. Dunlop ran a time of 7.40 seconds -- only three-hundreths of a second off her school record -- for her win against the Buckeyes in the 60-meter dash.\nAlthough the sprinters are running quickly after the second meet of the season, Heisler said the improved weight training is meant to make the women run fastest at the end of the season, in time for the Big Ten and NCAA championships. \n But Heisler said Boone's personal record times, including a 24.44 seconds in the 200-meter dash, the fourth-best time in IU history, shouldn't be a surprise.\n "Since she is a younger athlete, we kind of expect the growth and the speed to drop quickly," Heisler said. "As they get older, we don't expect the immediate drops."\nAs a freshman last season, Boone scored points for the Big Ten champion Hoosiers at both the indoor and outdoor conference finals and at the outdoor NCAA championships. She placed sixth in the 200-meter dash at the Big Ten indoor championships and second in the event at the outdoor finals.\nAt the outdoor NCAA championships, Boone was an All-American in the 200-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay with Dunlop, Carruthers and sophomore Rose Richmond. Boone placed 11th in the 200 and 13th in the 100-meter dash.\n"She's very talented," Dunlop said. "She's still young, and she's going to be doing a lot for IU in the future, and she's doing a lot right now. Whenever I run against her, it helps me always be a little bit better. Just training with her has helped me a lot these past two years, and I really appreciate that"