Track and field to compete again

Several Hoosiers look forward to the NCAA East Preliminary Round for track and field May 29-31 after the team’s regular season came to an end.

This follows the Hoosiers’ placement in the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, which took place during the weekend of May 16-18 in West Lafayette.

During the Championships, two Hoosiers won first place.

Junior Rorey Hunter won the 1,500-meter race and set a facility record in the process.
Hunter finished with a time of 3:44.59, the fastest time recorded at the Rankin Track and Field Complex in West Lafayette, home to the Purdue Boilermakers.

He joins other Hoosier champions Ben Huber in 2011 and Andy Bayer in 2012 and 2013 as the fourth consecutive champion of the outdoor 1,500 meter race.

Joining Hunter in a first-place finish was senior Kyla Buckley in shot put. Buckley captured the title with a season-best throw of 17.19 meters.

Coming into the championships, IU Coach Ron Helmer said a realistic goal for his young men’s and women’s teams was to finish in the top half of the conference.

As a team, IU fell short of that goal in both the men’s and the women’s fields.

The IU men’s team placed eighth, and the women’s team placed ninth in the outdoor Big Ten Track and Field Championships.

Also earning medals were senior Kelsie Ahbe, with a silver in pole vault, and freshman Tre’Tez Kinnaird, with a silver in the 800-meter race.

Senior Robby Nierman earned a silver medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on day two of the event with a time of 8:49.72.

If competitors make it out of the qualifying round at the NCAA East Preliminary Round which will he held next week, they will go onto the NCAA championships, which will take place June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore.

Evan Hoopfer