Track teams perform well despite poor weather

Apparently no one told the men’s and women’s track teams that the weather in Columbia, Mo., would be miserable, and that they wouldn’t be able to perform well at the Tom Botts Invitational. That or the teams simply were not listening as, despite horrid conditions, the men and women combined to win 15 events.\n“The weather was bad, and the times reflected that,” said IU sprinter’s coach George Freeman. “But it was like the team was hungry and had a great meet.”\nThe invite was a relatively small one because IU went up against host Missouri and rival Purdue. \n“The meet originally had six teams scheduled to participate, but the weather scared some of the teams off,” Freeman said.\nThe weather was 48 degrees and raining both days of the invite, according to The Weather Channel, but it didn’t faze Hoosiers and senior sprinter Stacey Clausing. Clausing competed in the 200- and 400-meter dashes and ran a leg in both the 4x100-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay.\n“I really pushed her,” Freeman said. “But after the meet was over, she told me that she liked being pushed.”\nClausing won both of her dashes and helped the relay squads win both of their events.\nAnother winner on the women’s side was senior Courtney Johnson, who posted another regional qualifying time of 13.89 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. Teammate senior Lorian Price finished second with a time on the cusp of qualifying for the regional meet – 14.01 seconds. Price also finished first in the long jump.\nThe men’s squad also featured many first-place finishes this weekend. Junior sprinter Keith Heerdegen took first in the 200-meter dash after finishing second in the 100-meter.\n“Keith ran a great time,” Freeman said. “It didn’t matter to him where the wind was blowing or if it was raining.”\nHeerdegen’s time of 21.59 seconds in the 200-meter dash is a new personal best.\nOff the track, field athletes were also bringing blue ribbons. Cutting through the wind and rain, freshman Eric Werskey won the discus throw with a regional qualifying distance of 51.78 meters. And indoor Big Ten champion Kiwan Lawson won the long jump with a leap of 7.18 meters.\nAll in all, the times were not the best that these Hoosier squads will put up, but IU’s showing tenacity to perform no matter what is a tribute to the team’s character, said men’s interim coach Wayne Pate.\n“We won a lot of events, and it was nice to be able to do that,” he said. “The team had a lot of character in that in a meet like this, you can throw the times out of the window, but they still went out there and competed. They showed a lot of heart this weekend, and that makes a coach happy.”