Hoosiers head to nationally televised Penn Relays

As they have for most of the season, the IU women's track and field team will participate in a meet this weekend. There is just one difference: this weekend's meet will be nationally televised on NBC.\nThe Hoosiers will compete in the 112th annual Penn Relays in Philadelphia, which starts today and goes through Saturday. The nationally televised meet has IU pumped to compete this weekend.\n"The best teams in the nation compete every year at this meet, including North Carolina, Duke, Arkansas and Tennessee," said senior distance runner Larra Overton.\nThe feeling that the Penn Relays is one of the most important track meets of the outdoor season resides with other members of the squad as well.\n"Penn Relays is one of the biggest track meets in the world," said junior distance runner Jessica Gall. "Every year it draws some of the top athletes in America and abroad."\nThe Hoosiers have already qualified team members for the NCAA Regionals, so the atmosphere around each meet, including the Penn Relays, seems more relaxed, Gall said.\n"The team is in a really good position for this point in the season," Gall said. "We have a number of girls already qualified for the regional meet so we can train how we want to and race different distances instead of having to keep chasing the regional standard."\nIU has been preparing for the Penn Relays in a rather unique way. Many teams tend to solely focus on practicing for each event to be able to compete well. IU is also practicing for each event, but they are focusing more on the mental aspects of the game rather than the physical, as well.\n"The past few weeks we have focused on being smart and doing the little things that make a big difference," said Gall. "We are all trying to get a lot of sleep, stretch a lot, take care of ourselves and not get too caught up in the hype of spring activities in Bloomington."\nGall is not only focused on team goals, but also her personal goals, as she has been one of the featured distance runners all outdoor season.\n"Thursday, I am running the 3K, which is a shorter race for me so my goal is to be competitive and work on my speed endurance," said Gall. "On Saturday, I am running a leg in the 4x800-meter relay, and it will be both my first 800-meter (race) in college and my first relay in college so I am very excited for it."\nAs if competing in the nationally televised Penn Relays is not exciting enough, the crowd will be sure to get the adrenaline flowing in the Hoosiers.\n"The Penn Relays is one of the biggest and most historic track meets in the nation," said Overton. "The meet has recorded crowds of 30,000 spectators."\nExcluding the Penn Relays, the Hoosiers are using the rest of their scheduled meets as a warm-up for the end of the season invitationals, according to Gall.\n"All of the other meets are really just practice for Big Tens, regionals and nationals," she said.