IU track and field opened its season with a bang when it was the host of the Hoosier Open on Friday. IU was host to Kentucky, Purdue and Tennessee and broke three school records.
Sophomore Katherine Receveur broke the school record in the 5K run.
Sophomore Willie Morrison broke the school record in shot put by more than a foot and went on to win the event.
The third school record broken Friday was broken by sophomore Kyle Mau, who won the men’s 3K.
IU Coach Ron Helmer said he was very impressed and proud of his team as a whole and hopes they will continue that trend throughout the season.
“We had some really good opponents this weekend,” Helmer said. “We have a lot of work to do but very encouraging with what we had. Willie broke the school record with a really good throw, and I was so impressed to see that from him as a sophomore.”
Helmer spoke highly of his athletes who broke the three school records Friday and said he was very impressed with Morrison’s throw in shot put.
“Those are the kind of things that we want to happen, and the shot put record is such an impressive record to be broken,” he said. “We had some quality athletes who competed at a high level and are only going to get better as the season progresses.”
IU won eight out of 23 events Friday, seven of them being racing events. Coming into the meet IU Coach Ed Beathea said the team was confident in its distance runners, and he proved to be right when the meet was finished.
Beathea said he didn’t think there were certain individuals that stood out for the rest of the team, but the distance runners showed out at the Hoosier Open, partially due to the athletes’ cross-country conditioning.
Helmer said this certainly helps, but they also caught their competition off guard as they looked as though the traveling this early in the season affected their performances.
“Everybody who won ran really well, but comparatively speaking, those events weren’t that strong,” Helmer said. “The teams aren’t ready to travel this early, and we took advantage.”
Helmer said it’s hard to tell what the team’s seasonal goals are as a whole, but they have been preparing since early September. He said he hopes his athletes will invest in the process as the season goes along.
“It’s very much a process, and that’s the way our mentality is,” he said. “The results will get us where we want to be. We focused on having our workouts be at a high level in the fall, and I feel like we’ve done that. For me, we have a number of talented people who haven’t lined up yet, and when they do, it will add more depth for our team.”
