Track team set to travel to Notre Dame

This weekend, the IU men’s and women’s track and field squads will be participating in the Meyo Invitational at the Loftus Center at Notre Dame in South Bend.

The Meyo Invitational will be the first away meet for the Hoosiers, who have had each of the season’s first five meets at home, with the Indiana Relays capping the home series this past weekend.

The meet will feature a distance medley relay, which junior middle distance runner Ruth Christopher will be taking part in.

Christopher will be competing in the 800-meter segment of the relay, which features a 400-, 800- and a 1600-meter leg.

“We’re still doing a lot of training and trying to build a lot of strength,” Christopher said. “I feel like we’re in a good place, and we just have to continue with the training that we’ve been doing so that we can give ourselves a chance to perform well.”

Christopher said the elite competition at a meet such as the Meyo Invitational only adds to the motivation she and her teammates use to elevate their performances.

“It’s definitely a motivating factor, just being able to have people who can compete well and that they are able to compete at a high level,” Christopher said. “They’re able to push us to perform better. We know what’s out there and where we need to be, so it’s definitely an indication of where we are in our training and what we need to do to get better.”

Also competing in the distance medley relay, specifically the 400 meters, will be junior Aireonna Bailey.

“I’m excited to run the distance medley relay because I feel like we can put up a good time and qualify for nationals,” Bailey said. “The competition will play a major role because I’m such a competitor, so I feel like I run a lot faster when I have somebody to run against.”

On the men’s side, senior distance runner De’Sean Turner will be competing in the 800 meters during the weekend after posting a time of 4:00.13 in the one-mile run at this past weekend’s Indiana Relays.

Turner will have a chance to break the school record in the 800 meters, and he said the opportunity has been on his mind for quite some time.

“I got pretty close three years ago at this same meet, so it has been on my mind since then,” Turner said. “It’s a record that has been around for quite a few years. Really, we’re just trying to make our 800 program more respectable.”