3 Hoosiers qualify for regional competition

The IU women’s track-and-field squad continued their push toward the Big Ten championships and the NCAA Mideast Regional this weekend at the 98th annual Drake Relays.\nThe women added three more athletes to their pool of regional competitors.\nOn Thursday, the first day of competition, senior Lindsay Hattendorf posted a regional qualifying mark in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:39.92. The time is Hattendorf’s new personal best.\n“We have another one on the bus for the regional meet,” women’s interim coach Judy Wilson said in a statement Thursday. “... After coming off a week lay-off after Stanford, we were just trying to get (Hattendorf) in a rhythm again. This was a good indication of her having the ability to run a 16:20 by the time we hit the regional meet.”\nOn the second day of the meet, the women were able to gather two more qualifiers for the Mideast regional. \nSophomore Caity Lauer finished fourth in the 800-meter run, posting personal-best time of 2:07.44. \nOff the track, freshman Vera Neuenswander vaulted 3.95 meters, placing her sixth in the competition and qualifying her for the Mideast regional. The clearance was also good enough to place Neuenswander second all-time at IU in the women’s outdoor pole vault.\nThe men’s weekend was not as successful as the women’s.\nSophomore Jeff Coover placed higher than any of the IU men with an eighth-place finish in the pole vault, clearing 4.90 meters.\nIn its first competition this year, the men’s 4x200-meter relay squad finished ninth with a time of 1:26.99.\nThe teams return to competition Friday when they host the Billy Hayes Invitational.