Athletes prove up to competition

The men's and women's track and field teams headed to the University of Texas to participate in the 75th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays over the weekend. The meet featured some of the best talent in the country, and the Hoosiers proved they can compete at this level.\nJuniors Rachelle Boone and Danielle Carruthers led the way for the women's team. Boone took third in the 100-meter dash while running her best time of the season at 11.53. Carruthers took fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.13. Both of these times were NCAA provisional marks. Freshman Emily Tharpe also earned a provisional mark in the pole vault and finished third place, with a height of 3.80 meters.\nAlso doing well this weekend was junior Irina Kharun, who finished third overall in the javelin and had a provisional mark. In the high jump, freshman Christina Archibald took eighth place. Despite these good performances, the Hoosiers saw there was room for improvement in several areas.\n"We have six weeks to go until Big Tens," women's coach Randy Heisler said. "We haven't won anything yet, and I want the girls to get focused."\nThe men performed strong as well.\nIn the first outdoor meet of his career, freshman John Jefferson finished first in the 1,500-meter run. Jefferson beat the second-place runner by 1.5 seconds and finished with a time of 3:47.65\nSophomore Rob DeWitte finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:12.00. In the triple-jump, IU was represented by freshman Aarik Wilson. He took a 10th place finish overall (ninth in his section) with a mark of 15.50 meters.\nIn the javelin, junior Pat Miller finished second in his section with the best throw of his career. The new personal record beat his previous mark by two feet. His throw was 64.76 meters, while the first-place throw was 64.82. Miller closed in on the school record and was just 3 meters away from an NCAA provisional mark. \n"I think it is going to take around 225 feet to (qualify for) the NCAA championships," he said. "I want to be throwing 230 feet by the end of the season." \nNext weekend's meet will not have as many high-caliber athletes and will be the first meet of the outdoor season in which the whole team will compete. \n"I think we have to show that there are several (athletes) in the wings that want to be apart of the scoring team," men's coach Marshall Goss said. "Next week we will have a full team and we will judge from that"