Lady runners take on Michigan

The IU women's track and field team begins the 2004 season with high expectations this weekend as the Hoosiers take on Michigan. After losing 13 runners to graduation, the Hoosier's season began to look slow, but the appointment of Randy Heisler as the director of track and field in August and Heisler's signing of three in-state sprinters in December have brought the program back up to speed.\nIU lost four All-Americans -- Danielle Carruthers (sprints/hurdles), Rachelle Boone (sprints), Rose Richmond (jumps/sprints) and Ira Kharun (javelin).\nHeisler said you cannot replace talented athletes like those with freshmen.\n"The thing that I am curious about is to see how our women's team responds," Heisler said. "Last year, I felt we had athletes that had the ability to step up at the conference (meet) and possibly even on the national level and do really well. But because we preached the team concept to them so much, they may have looked at Rose, Danielle, Rachelle and Ira and thought, 'Because they are on our team, I'm not being counted on to step up.'"\nIU returns five talented distance runners who are coming off back-to-back trips to the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Those five runners are senior Audrey Giesler, junior Mindy Peterson and sophomores Jessica Gall, Lindsay Hattendorf and Kelly Siefker.\nLast track season, Giesler set the Big Ten Conference outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase record with a time of 10 minutes 14.19 seconds and was named Verizon Academic All-American Third Team.\n"I'm so happy for Audrey because of how far she has come," Heisler said. "This is her senior year, and who knows what Audrey can do? I look for her to lead by example."\nWith the loss of Boone and Carruthers, Heisler expects junior sprinter Ara Towns to emerge as IU's top sprinter. Towns is a two-time All-American with the IU 4x100-meter relay team which set an IU record of 43.57 seconds and finished fifth at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships.\n"We will look for Ara to step right into the shoes that Rachelle and Danielle filled," Heisler said. "She'll have a national runner-up to compete against in the conference, but that's okay. We are looking for big things from her."\nSenior jumper Lauren Chesnut is a two-time NCAA qualifier and set the IU indoor and outdoor triple-jump record last season.\n"After transferring and going through that process, it's a real credit to Lauren to achieve all that she did last year," Heisler said. "I expect her to jump even further this year."\nIU returns all four pole vaulters, as juniors Emily Tharpe placed third at the Big Ten Indoor Conference Championship in 2003 and senior Ellison Tipton finished sixth at the outdoor conference meet in 2003.\n"Emily, Ellison, (junior) Abby (Paul) and (sophomore) Ashley (Stinton) have all had their moments," Heisler said of the quartet. "I am hoping we will have consistency, since we have an everyday coach in that area now. They are all training hard. This group is a huge factor in our program because we could win the conference or put two or three athletes in the top five."\n"They are a great bunch of young ladies, and they work really hard. I am really confident that they are going to do well this year."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.