Team splits, heads to Florida Relays, Stanford Invitational

The IU men’s and women’s track and field squads will be headed to opposite ends of the country this weekend to compete against the nation’s best athletes.

The weekend will be a split-squad affair, with select groups of athletes heading to the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla., and the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Florida Relays, which began in 1939, is considered to be one of the nation’s premiere meets, featuring elite athletes from across the country.

Those participating in this event will have the luxury of competing on a newly renovated Percy Beard Track at James G. Pressly Stadium.

The University of Florida, host of the event, spent $725,000 on a new Mondo surface during the offseason.

A different group of Hoosiers will travel to the Stanford Invitational, which, like the Florida Relays, is considered to be high-profile meet on a national scale.

This is the second consecutive weekend that the Hoosiers will travel far from Bloomington, after a small group of athletes made the trek to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Relays.

Junior pole vaulter Kelsie Ahbe will seek to build on her performance in Texas, in which she cleared a season-best 4.25 meters.

The mark also boosted Ahbe into the top spot in the Big Ten rankings in the event.
On the men’s side, senior Dan Galos set two massive personal records at the Mike Poehlein Invitational last weekend in the hammer throw and discus.

— Connor Killoren