Hoosier season opens with distance success

This weekend, the Hoosier distance runners led IU at the fifth annual Baldy Castillo Invitational, IU's first competition of the outdoor season. The three-day meet, Arizona State held at the Devils Sun Angel Stadium, was not scored. \nThe Hoosiers finished two runners in the Top 5 in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Freshman Tom Burns took second in 9 minutes, 28.37 seconds, while freshman Matt Sweetman finished fourth with a time of 9:33.89. \nAlso taking second in an event was junior Ryan Huber, whose time of 1:49.37 in the 800-meter run just missed the NCAA provisional mark of 1:49.00. Huber also took 15th in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.80. \nIn the 5,000-meter run, sophomore Chad Andrews ran .82 seconds faster than his career-best of 14:46.83 set in May of 2000 as he took seventh in 14:46.01. Fellow sophomore Bart Phariss improved his previous career-best by more than 30 seconds as he finished in 14:59.91. \nIn the field events, senior Kris Mack took second in the pole vault, clearing a height of 5.00 meters. Sophomore Mike Minton took fourth in the shot put with a toss of 16.95 meters and finished ninth in the discus with a mark of 50.60 meters.