Drouin’s world record highlight of Big Ten meet

IU Coach Ron Helmer said he felt a mixed bag of emotions while riding the bus home on Saturday from the Big Ten Track and Field Championships.

Sixth- and 10th-place finishes by the IU men’s and women’s track and field teams can be bitter after watching some great individual performances.

“Yeah, I was disappointed in where we ended in the standings,” Helmer said. “But I’m also really proud of our athletes. Our youth just kept us from supporting our older athletes.”

During the two-day meet, the Hoosiers took home five individual championships — all won by upperclassmen.

“We had a lot of good performances by our younger athletes, and they showed a lot of growth,” Helmer said. “Those seventh and eighth place finishes just don’t add up to a lot of points.”

The biggest story of the weekend for IU was senior Derek Drouin. A late entry into the men’s heptathlon, Drouin made his presence known in the heptathlon’s high jump.

Drouin cleared 2.30-meter (7-feet-6.5-inches) in the event, breaking the world record of 2.25-meters (7-feet-4.5-inches) for high jump in a heptathlon.

Helmer said on Friday night he was sure the heptathlon would tire Drouin out for the open high jump the next day. After all, Drouin said he hasn’t jumped two days in a row since high school.

Drouin answered by winning his third Big Ten indoor title with a successful clearance of 2.26-meters (7-feet-5-inchers). That height also broke the Big Ten indoor meet record set by Drouin two years ago.

“He’s the person I’m most impressed with after this meet,” Helmer said. “To compete in seven events and then turn around an hour later to break the meet record in the high jump — that was pretty phenomenal.”

The Hoosier men also scored a win from senior Zach Mayhew in the 5000-meter run. Mayhew now has his first indoor title to accompany his outdoor 10-kilometer and cross country Big Ten titles earned in 2012.

The final conference title for the men came from IU graduate student Scott Houston in the pole vault. It is Houston’s first conference title of his career.

The women’s team extended its conference champion streak to six on Friday when junior Kyla Buckley was crowned as the shotput champion. Senior Emma Kimoto followed with an individual title of her own in the women’s high jump.

Kimoto said she made it her goal during her freshman season to win a Big Ten title before she departs from IU, and the fact she was the runner-up last year makes it that much sweeter.

“I’ve had a really tough indoor season,” Kimoto said. “I had some problems in my approach, but it’s my senior year so I decided I had to win it.”

The Alex Wilson Invitational is scheduled for March 1-2, and Helmer said he will need to send several athletes for their last chance to qualify for the national championship meet.

Helmer offered some insight to how he views his team after its performance this weekend.

“Great athletes know what they need to do to be successful,” Helmer said. “We showed that we have a lot of great athletes here, but with some other people, we still have quite a bit of work to do.”