No place like home for IU

The drive to the Big Ten Indoor Championships begins this weekend at Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse as the Hoosiers host the two-day Indiana Invitational, beginning Friday and concluding Saturday. \nThe meet serves as a simulation of the Big Ten Indoor meet, particularly by adding qualifying rounds and preliminary heats to several events, thereby spreading the competition over two days. \n"We're going to have qualifying rounds in the throws on Friday before the finals on Saturday," said senior Mike Minton. "Coach Heisler wants us to get used to competing over two days so we aren't surprised by anything at Michigan."\nThe Indiana Invitational serves as preparation for tough competition at next weekend's Tyson Invitational at Arkansas, which features a top-flight facility complete with a banked track and a fast surface. Arkansas has held the NCAA Indoor Championships since the new track was installed and will do so again this season in early March. \n"It'll be nice to get on the track before NCAAs to kind of get a feel for it," said sophomore Sean Jefferson. "Plus, it'll be nice to be in a race that's guaranteed to be fast so I can just compete instead of worrying about time; fast times will come with winning, and I want to start winning fast races."\nJefferson will be one of the key competitors in the meet's featured event, the invitational mile, set for just after 7 p.m. Each year, IU assistant coach Robert Chapman puts together a small field of elite athletes to take a crack at one of the biggest of all track accomplishments, the four-minute mile, or else produce an NCAA Indoor qualifying time. \nThis year, Ohio State's Rob Myers, who has ran a 3:58 mile, will be in the field. The winner has consistently run 4:03 or better and qualified for NCAA's. IU competitors will include Jefferson, sophomores Eric Redman and Stephen Haas and senior All-American Chris Powers, fresh off a fieldhouse record last weekend in the 3,000 meters at Missouri. \nFormer Hoosier and current assistant coach Chris Ekman will handle pacing duties, with a goal of leading the athletes through the first half of the race just under 2:00. \n"My job is to run on pace for a sub-4:00 effort," said Ekman. "It's a lot easier for the other runners to gut through the last half if they don't have to worry about staying on pace early."\nMen's and women's heptathlon competition begins at noon Friday. The bulk of the meet starts at 4 p.m. and concludes with the distance medley relay at 9:50 p.m. \nCompetition resumes at noon Saturday and comes to a close at 3 p.m. Athletes to watch include junior thrower Ryan Ketchum, who set new personal bests in the shot put and weight throw last weekend at the Tiger Classic, freshman sprinter David Neville, freshman 60-meter hurdler Stephanos Ioannou, currently ranked third in the Big Ten, and freshman long and triple jumper Kiwan Lawson, filling in admirably for All-American Aarik Wilson, who is redshirting due to injury. \n-- Contact staff writer Rob DeWitte at rdewitte@indiana.edu.