Four athletes to compete for national titles

This weekend four Hoosier athletes will journey to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete in the 2006 NCAA Men's Indoor Track Championships. The trip should be a familiar one, as the event is held at the Randal Tyson Track Center where the team competed in the Tyson Invite earlier this year.\nThe four athletes who earned entry to this year's championships were of little surprise, as their accomplishments have paved the team's success throughout the year. \nSenior distance runner Stephen Haas, a two-time All-American and the only Hoosier to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA championships, will run in the 5,000--meter Friday. Last year, Haas shattered the school record in the event with a mark of 13:41.42, a personal best. He is currently seeded third.\nIn an event typically dominated by upperclassmen, sophomore jumper Kiwon Lawson looks to legitimize his already impressive achievements in the long jump. Like Haas, who earned his automatic bid at the Tyson Invitational earlier this year, Lawson notched a personal best and provisional mark at the Tyson Invite. His distance of 7.75 meters in the long jump narrowly missed the automatic qualifying mark of 7.85 meters, but was sufficient to gain entry to the championships. \nSenior thrower Ryan Ketchum obliterated his previous personal best in the shot put with an 18.92-meter heave at last weekend's Alex Wilson Invite. Last week's effort might have rocketed him into the nation's elite as he is currently seeded 12 in the event.\nJunior sprinter David Neville has carried the Hoosiers throughout the year with his excellence in multiple events, racking up major points at competitions in the medium-distance events. One of only two competitors to claim a first-place title in two events at the Big Ten Championships, Neville's first-place finishes in the 200-meter and 400-meter earned him first-team all-Big Ten honors. With a championship appearance in all three of his years at IU, Neville's accomplishments have not gone unrecognized. He is currently seeded fourth in the 400-meter and seventh in the 200-meter.