Track teams blow past competition

Forgive the math, but for a women’s sprinter to qualify for the regional meet in the 100-meter dash, she must cover the 100 meters in 11.75 seconds or less, which would average her speed out at roughly 19 mph. \nSo imagine, plowing through another person at that speed. IU’s junior sprinter Zakiya Robinson did just that in a warm up for her dash.\n“She was prepared to come out of the blocks and collided with a guy,” IU sprinting coach George Freeman said. “She hurt her rib and knocked the air out of her. She is fine now but she missed the 200- and 100- (meter dashes), and we were looking forward to her running in those.”\nFreeman said that Robinson should be able to run in next weekend’s Drake Relays.\nOther than Robinson’s setback the IU track and field teams had a strong meet at the Cardinal Invite hosted by Louisville.\nThe meet was unofficially scored between Louisville, IU and Indiana State. The coaches kept score as if the meet were a head-to-head team competition, even though it was an open invitational. Freeman said that keeping score really pushed his athletes to compete harder.\n“We were at the point where Stacey (Clausing) wasn’t going to run in the 4-by-400-meter relay, but she did and they ran their fastest time,” Freeman said. “Audrey Smoot ran a really good split, which wouldn’t have happened unless we ran it. The scoring keeps our competitive edge sharp.”\nEarlier in the day, Clausing, a senior sprinter, recorded her first regional qualifying mark of the outdoor season in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.42 seconds. She finished first in the event.\nAlso winning her event was senior Lorian Price, who ran a time of 13.77 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. Her teammate and classmate Courtney Johnson finished right behind her in second with a time of 13.80 seconds. That time was also a regional standard time, the third for Johnson this season.\nThe men’s track and field team also had a strong meet, particularly from its standout freshman thrower.\nEric Werskey improved his regional standard in the shot put with a toss of 17.48 meters, finishing second. Werskey qualified for the regional meet in both the shot put and the discus throw.\n“Eric is in a spot where he could win in the shot and/or the discus at the Big Tens, but he has to be able to put it together in the same weekend,” throwers coach Wil Fleming said.\nHe said for Werskey to do that, Fleming is going to change practices around. Instead of throwing either the discus or the shot one day, he will have Werskey do both in the same practice.