Hoosiers prepare for Big Tens with invitational

This weekend, the Hoosier Hills Track and Field Invitational offers the women's team opportunities to improve times and marks a week before the Big Ten Championships. Some athletes won't run their main events to avoid injury, while others will aim for personal records.\nSenior Jennifer Brown, last year's Big Ten shot put champion, hopes to increase her career-best throw of 16.33 feet Saturday against 11 teams at Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse. North Kentucky, Life, Indiana State, Findlay, Kentucky State, Anderson, Marian, Mid-Way, Bellarmine, Goshen and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis are scheduled to compete.\n"I don't think this weekend is crunch time, I think this weekend is time to get all the little kinks out," said Brown, who owns the nation's 11th-farthest shot put throw this season. "When you go to Big Tens, you don't want to have to think about anything. You just want to go in there and do what you know you can do."\nLike Brown, sprints coach Ed Beathea thinks the Hoosiers must be mentally prepared to defend their Big Ten title. The non-scored Hoosier Hills Open will allow the Hoosiers to gain confidence before they travel to West Lafayette in a week for the two-day championships, he said.\n"There's not necessarily one thing we're trying to fix. (We are) just trying to get them to where they mentally feel like, or physically feel like, they can place high at the Big Tens," he said. "The expectation for this weekend is to get through the weekend without any injury and to just kind of tune up for the Big Tens."\nFour Hoosier sprinters rank nationally, many alongside conference opponents. Senior Lorraine Dunlop ran the nation's second fastest time (7.31 seconds) in the 60-meter dash at the Penn State Collegiate last weekend. Tahesia Harrigan of Minnesota is right behind Dunlop with a season-best time of 7.35 seconds. IU sophomore Rachelle Boone ranks 14th at 7.39 seconds.\nIn the 400-meter dash, junior Tia Trent boasts the conference's best time of 54.34 seconds, which ranks 10th in the nation.\nSophomore Danielle Carruthers said she doesn't plan to run the hurdles this weekend. She qualified for the NCAA championships with the second fastest time in the nation at the Penn State Collegiate. The time of 8.12 seconds is also the second fastest time in the Big Ten. Donica Merriman of Ohio State owns the fastest time of 8.03 seconds, and 2000 Olympian Perdita Felicien of Illinois is third with 8.16 seconds.\nWhile some sprinters will skip their individual events this weekend to avoid injury, practicing relays will be a focus. The Hoosiers don't have a nationally ranked relay team. Last year, IU's 4x400-meter relay finished second to Illinois in the Big Ten by one-hundredth of a second, and the sprinters plan to race parts, if not all four legs, of their Big Ten final relay team this weekend.\nWhen they won the conference meet by a record 42 points last year, the Hoosiers didn't have to win the 4x400 relay, the meet's final event, to secure the championship. Without the depth of last year's roster, the Hoosiers might have to rely on the relay to successfully defend their title.\n"The four-by-four is our focus right now," Carruthers said. "We already know the Big Ten meet finals is going to come down to the four-by-four relay. We'll try to become a little bit more familiar with it this weekend and get one more run in before Big Tens"