Track coach says best is yet to come

Despite last Saturday's win against Big Ten opponents Purdue and Ohio State, women's track and field coach Randy Heisler remains convinced that the team's best performances are yet to come.\n"We had seven or eight performances that were pretty good," Heisler said. "The downside of that is that there were 50 performances that were not good. If we want a chance to win the Big Ten, we need to set P.R. (personal records) every weekend."\nThis Saturday's meet in Champaign, Ill. against No. 16 Illinois, Missouri and Eastern Illinois will give Heisler's squad the opportunity to apply their talents, as they will be competing against teams they normally don't get to compete against. This weekend, like last weekend, Heisler will be taking more athletes than usual to be sure that each has ample opportunities to prove and develop her talents. \nHeisler said that he is looking for a number of field event athletes to improve their performances this weekend, including sophomore pole vaulter Emily Tharpe, freshman high jumper Jean Schaffer and freshman throwers Andrea Dalla Rossa and senior Kelley McKinney.\nJunior Lauren Chesnut, who has yet to be beaten this year in the triple jump, said she believes that she is on the right track for a successful year. \n"I've never jumped this far so early in the season," she said. \nLast Saturday, Chesnut was short of the NCAA provisional jump length by just five centimeters. She said that her main goal for Saturday is to win the triple jump and to qualify provisionally for the NCAA Indoor Championships. \nAlong with high expectations for the jumpers and throwers, Heisler also expects the distance runners to have a more solid performance this weekend, led by sophomore Mindy Peterson and junior Audrey Geisler. \n"If they go in to win the race, they ought to P.R.," Heisler said. \nBoth Peterson and Geisler remained in Bloomington last weekend rather than competing against Purdue and Ohio State to better prepare themselves for Saturday's meet. \nPeterson said that the time off has been very helpful.\n"We're definitely prepared for this weekend," she said.\nPeterson is especially eager to run this weekend because of the intense competition.\n"I know there will be good competition in the mile and the 800," she said. "It will be nice to see what I can actually do"