IU track heads to West Lafayette

The Indiana-Purdue rivalry is never short on competition, and it’s with a competitive mentality that the IU Men’s and Women’s Track and Field team heads to West Lafayette this Saturday to compete in a dual meet against the Boilermakers.

In their second meet of the indoor season, 32 Indiana athletes will compete in 15 events for a chance to earn their sixth consecutive win over Purdue. However, IU  Coach Ron Helmer said this win won’t be as easy to come by as it has in years past.

“They made a change in their coaching staff last year, and they’ve done a good job,” Helmer said.

Helmer, who is in his seventh season as the IU Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Head Coach, emphasized competitive, rather than individual, performance as a focus for Saturday’s meet.

“We get caught up in how far, how high, how fast, and all those things are important,” Helmer said. “But head-to-head competition, and being able to handle that, is also important.”

The Hoosiers entered the 2014 season with key losses to their roster, including Olympic bronze-medalist Derek Drouin and 11-time All-American Andrew Bayer, both of whom graduated in spring 2013.

Now, with a much different team than he’s had in previous years, Coach Helmer will use this meet as an early-season gauge for the fitness level, composure, and competitiveness of his athletes.  

“We’re young and in the process of figuring out who that next group of great ones is going to be,” Helmer said.

It may be a process, but Helmer said the team is not short on talent. Senior Arianne Raby broke the IU Women’s Indoor Track and Field record for 1000 meters at the Hoosier Open, the team’s first meet of the season, and senior Erica Ridderman currently holds the sixth-fastest time in the NCAA for the Women’s Indoor 5k.
Ridderman, who will be running in the 3k and 4x800 meter relay on Saturday, talked about what the Indiana-Purdue rivalry means to this team.

“In one way, it’s just another meet,” Ridderman said. “But we always want to win it.”

With a roster that boasts over 40 freshmen, this IU Track and Field team will depart from Bloomington Saturday morning with a determined, but realistic attitude for their meet at Lambert Fieldhouse.

“They don’t like getting beat by us any more than we like getting beat by them,” Helmer said. “It’s going to be a difficult competition for us, and that’s what we need.”

-Tori Ziege