Track and field improves Indiana Relays

Olympians, NCAA champions, students and professional athletes converged on IU’s Gladstein Fieldhouse last Friday and Saturday.

The Indiana Relays provided athletes an opportunity to compete and secure qualifying times for the fast-approaching NCAA Indoor Championships, which will take place Feb. 22 and 23.

Friday night’s agenda featured most of the weekend’s marquee events, including the high jump final and mile run invitational.

Senior Derek Drouin competed in the high jump in his first showing in the event since winning a bronze medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Drouin won the event Friday night with a successful jump of 2.29 meters, tying him for the collegiate lead. He said that the result does not mean much to him right now, however.

“I was just hoping to get a qualifying mark,” Drouin said. “The title of NCAA leader is cool, but it’s not what I was out searching to do.”

The men’s mile run invitational provided plenty of excitement, mixing professional and student athletes. Senior Zach Mayhew was the second collegiate finisher, crossing the line at 4:00.85.

“I couldn’t be happier with that,” Mayhew said. “I felt like I fought the whole way. I had one bad lap in the middle where I fell off a little bit, but I don’t think I could have gone faster than that. I was reaching really deep.”

Senior Andrew Bayer was seeded nearly five seconds better than his final time of 4:05.12, but according to IU Coach Ron Helmer, an illness earlier in the week threw off his training schedule.

The event’s winner, Andrew Poore, is a former IU runner and became the seventh Indiana-born person to ever break the four-minute barrier with his time of 3:58.85.

Sophomore JR Ricker was a surprise victor in Saturday’s 5000-meter run invitational after entering the event with the lowest seed time in the field. His time of 14:13.84 ranks second in the Big Ten behind Mayhew’s performance earlier this season in the Hoosier Open.

Across the facility, junior Kyla Buckley held her own in the women’s shot put. She finished third with a throw of 16.44 meters and showed signs of improvement from earlier this season, Helmer said.

“We challenged Kyla,” he said. “She’s too good of an athlete to perform like she’s been doing. She’s given us positive results now and she’s got lots of growth yet.”

Buckley said she is very competitive and expects to move up into the top five throwers in the nation this year and hopefully break some IU records. Her finish this weekend ranked third in IU history.

Helmer said he again saw improvement in an up-and-coming class of young talent. He said he was particularly impressed this weekend with freshman pole vaulter Sydney Clute, IU’s top finisher in the women’s pole vault invitational, and sophomore sprinter Nick Stoner, who put up the sixth-fastest overall time on the day in the 60-meter dash.

“We continue to have that group of emerging high-level athletes,” Helmer said. “And the other thing that was really good was we saw a lot of good efforts. They kept competing all weekend and that’s a very important part of the culture we need to cultivate.”