Runner excels despite setbacks

The IU men's track and field team has one of the deepest distance teams in the Big Ten. A large part of the success in the distance events is in the 3000-meter steeplechase. \nLast season the team had two scorers in this event at the Big Ten outdoor championships. Senior Jeff Zeha and junior Tom Burns finished sixth and seventh respectively. Fellow sophomore Rob DeWitte has started the season well and looks to add another potential scorer at Big Ten's for the Hoosiers.\nLast year DeWitte was hampered by injuries and illnesses that limited his success. These setbacks diminished the amount of training he was able to do. He got past the setbacks and was able to train hard over the summer. This training enabled him to provide a boost to the IU cross country team late in the season. He has carried over that success into the outdoor season.\n"Rob has proven himself in his first two races that he is not to be taken lightly," junior Tom Burns said. "Our steeplechase training group is deeper now, because Rob has shown that he is able to run fast. His abilities to run and hurdle make our team a greater threat in the conference."\nThe running abilities of DeWitte are now apparent to those on the team and around the conference. He is not the only runner in his family that has had success in the Big Ten Conference. He is a third generation runner for the Hoosiers. His grandfather was an outstanding runner and his father was a school record holder for IU.\n"He came with not quite the credentials of maybe the other parts of his family had but he has a work ethic and that has gotten him to be a player in the steeplechase," coach Marshall Goss said. "We are very pleased and excited about that."\nDeWette has made an enormous amount of progress this year. Having a third scorer in any event at the Big Ten championships would be a bonus. In an event as wide open as the steeplechase is this year, he also believes that it is a good possibility. Despite that, he does not set this as a goal.\nThis season is a building block for future success in his senior year. DeWitte has plans on helping the cross country team returning to the NCAA championships and making a run at qualifying for the steeplechase during his senior year.\n"I don't like to set goals because I feel sometimes people get fixated on them, and end up either limited or disappointed," he said. "I prefer to step on the track and see what happens. As long as you prepare properly and leave everything on the track in the end, it's hard to complain"