Irish, Hoosiers battle UK, Louisville for the Border

IU and Notre Dame will face Louisville and Kentucky in the Border Battle “Kentuckiana” on Saturday in Louisville, Ky.

For the men’s team, this will be the first meet without champion high jumper Derek Drouin.

“I need to try and score as many points as possible this season since we don’t have (Andy) Bayer or (Derek) Drouin,” junior distance runner De’Sean Turner said.

Bayer is not competing this season due to being redshirted, while Drouin is out for the year with a foot injury.

For the women’s team, junior Vera Neuenswander is coming off a strong performance that earned her Big Ten Athlete of the Week. Neuenswander won the pole vault competition last weekend at the Big Ten/SEC Challenge.

“It’s a unique format where IU and Notre Dame team up to try to beat Louisville and Kentucky, which is fun,” IU coach Ron Helmer said. “But more importantly, we will hopefully have good weather to go out and try and get work done with some
good performances.”