The fourth meet on the schedule, the Indiana Relays, begins Friday at 3 p.m., in which the Hoosiers will face the likes of Notre Dame, Western Kentucky, Illinois and Alabama, respectable track and field programs with a combined 20 athletes qualified for the national indoor ?championship.
As IU approaches the grind of the indoor season, competing both to qualify for the national championship and to prepare for the Big Ten Indoor Championship in February, nearly 40 athletes have set personal records.
“We have a lot of athletes who will compete and then think that they have failed if they don’t set a PR,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “That’s not the case at all, because great athletes set times that can’t always be reached on a consistent basis.”
One such athlete eluding that issue entirely is freshman thrower Andrew Miller, who has set a personal record in the weight throw every meet this season with a PR of 19.80 meters heading into this weekend.
“I go into every single meet thinking the exact same thing: throw farther than the last time I touched the ball,” Miller said. “Luckily, I have gone out and thrown farther each week, but that doesn’t change my mentality.”
Miller gives the credit to IU’s throwing coach Cory Martin, who holds the No. 16 mark on the international all-time shot put list. Martin was the runner-up at the 2013 USA Indoor Championships and a nine-time All-American at Auburn .
“I’ve got a really, really good coach,” Miller said of Martin. “He’s really picked up the intensity, and it has helped not just me but the other throwers as well. With seven Big Ten guys in the top 20 in the country, it’s just unfair, but we just have to keep getting better.”
Miller currently sits at No. 30 in the nation in the weight throw and needs to place in the top 16 to move on to ?nationals.
Despite a year-long injury suffered throughout her junior year, senior middle-distance runner Brie Roller joins the list of athletes who have set personal records is.
“Last year I had a hip impingement, so I just pushed through the pain as much as I could,” Roller said.
A hip impingement is a condition that is suffered in the ball joint of the hip, where cartilage inside the joint begins to breakdown, causing loss of range of motion and stiffness in the thigh.
“My coaches have had me working on speed instead of distance,” Roller said. “It puts less mileage on my body, since my body can’t take as much anymore.”
Even after losing most of her junior season, Roller has set a personal record in the 400-meter dash at 56.59 seconds. She hopes to run 54 seconds in the 400, 1:30 in the 600-meter run, and 2:08 in the 800-meter run, all ?significant personal records.
“I want to end my senior season with a bang,” Roller said.
The men’s heptathlon and the women’s pentathlon will not compete this weekend in order to gain rest for future indoor meets.
