Hoosiers finish well at Penn Relays

On a rainy weekend at America's most prestigious relay meet, the men's track team ignored the weather and put up solid performances across the board.\nIn Thursday's collegiate shot put competition, junior Ryan Ketchum grabbed first place with a 17.97-meter heave, a near-season best.\nFriday brought more glory for IU, though it came from a different state. In Iowa at the Drake Relays, senior Aarik Wilson won the long jump with a leap of 7.77 meters, which was top in the Mideast region and just short of his season best. On Saturday Wilson, competing at Drake because it provided better competition than Penn, grabbed his second Drake championship in the triple jump with a leap of 16.59 meters. \nAlso Friday, the quartet of junior All-American John Jefferson, freshman Doug Dayhoff, senior Rodney Hollis and junior All-American Sean Jefferson finished 10th in the distance medley relay with a time of 9:38. In a race packed with the nation's top teams, IU ran flat.\n"It just wasn't a good day for me, I felt flat," Sean Jefferson said. "Luckily we ran better Saturday."\nIU finished third Saturday in the 4-by-1 mile, bested only by perennial powerhouses Arkansas and Michigan, who set a collegiate and Penn record in the race with its winning time of 16:04. Clocked at 4:01, Sean Jefferson offered IU its fastest leg, followed by John Jefferson at 4:05, Eric Redman at 4:07 and Stephen Haas at 4:10.\n"We were pretty happy with it," Redman said. "We maybe could've run faster time-wise but the conditions didn't allow it."\nThe team's final time of 16:25 ranks fifth on IU's all-time list. \nOne of IU's goals prior to the meet involved its 4-by-400 meter relay team.\n"We need to run fast enough to get our 4-by-400 squad into regionals," said sophomore David Neville, IU's top sprinter.\nIU did everything it could, winning its section of the 4-by-400-meter relay. Unfortunately, the Hoosiers' time was just short of the 3:10 qualifying standard. The Hoosier quartet finished in 3:10.08. Their next shot will be at the Big Ten Championships in two weeks at Ohio State University.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Rob DeWitte at rdewitte@indiana.edu.