IU starts on its championship journey

Less than a week remains before the men's track team takes its show on the road to Purdue for the Big Ten Indoor Track Championships. The team wrapped up its preparation for the meet this weekend with the final home meet of the year -- the Hoosier Hills Invitational. \nSeveral Hoosiers used the meet to work out a few last-minute kinks and turned in strong tune-up performances.\nIn the shot put, junior Ryan Ketchum, currently No. 10 in the NCAA, won both the shot and the weight throw. In the weight, he earned his first NCAA provisional mark, winning with a heave of 19.51 meters. \n"My shot put mark isn't even the best I can throw," Ketchum said. "At Big Ten's, I should throw a lot further. We're tapering down now."\nJunior Wil Fleming, ranked in the top 20 nationally, finished right behind Ketchum in second with a toss of 19.34 meters. \n"I'll need to throw a little further at Big Ten's to get into NCAA's," Fleming said.\nFreshman Marcus Thigpen set a personal best in the 60-meters en route to winning the event in 6.82 seconds, which lodges him firmly in the hunt for the Big Ten 60-meter title.\nSenior Tom Burns, a standout steeplechaser outdoors, won the 5,000-meters in his second race of the season to become eligible to run the event at the Big Ten Championships.\n"I basically ran even pace the whole way," Burns said. "This year at Big Ten's, they're splitting the 5K into a fast and slow section, so you basically have to have a qualifying time to run it. We got that taken care of today."\nBurns, who figures big into IU's outdoor track aspirations, ran his first race of the season last weekend at the Tyson Invitational, where he finished the 3,000-meters in a personal best 8:23. In that race, freshman Brian Sullivan finished two seconds back and will run the same distance at the Big Ten Championships.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Rob DeWitte \nat rdewitte@indiana.edu.