After a disjointed start to the outdoor campaign, the IU men’s track and field team will travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, this week to compete in the Tennessee Relays.
The Hoosiers will join 14 other schools from the Big Ten, ACC and SEC in a three-day invitational. IU Coach Ron Helmer said he’s excited to get most of the team back together after having a divided start to the season.
“Relays are always fun,” Helmer said. “We’re taking most of the people we have who are ready to perform at a high level. We want to just go out and put together some competitive teams while having a good time.”
IU is coming together for the first time this year after splitting the team up for the first two weeks of the outdoor season. Helmer said he was pleased with the performance of the field athletes at the Big Ten/Pac 12 Invitational that took place at the end of March at Arizona State.
“They had a solid weekend before getting this past weekend off,” Helmer said. “I also think our distance guys performed well out at Stanford last week. I’m anxious to have everybody together for these next two or three weekends to see where we are.”
Although he’s glad to have everyone together, Helmer said he still understands that it’s going to take some time to get back in the rhythm.
“This time of the year on campus there is always a lot of stuff going on,” Helmer said. “We are about a month out from exams so obviously that’s on their mind too. We are going to have to rely on some of our older and mature athletes to make sure we are maintaining focus.”
One of the upperclassmen that will travel for the Hoosiers is junior Jordan Huntoon, who said he thinks this meet could be a statement for IU as the team continues to move forward.
“Bringing the whole team together now for this Tennessee meet is going to be a moment we are going to look back at as a really big positive on the season,” Huntoon said.
Day one of the meet will begin with the decathlon and the hammer throw. Junior Andrew Miller will compete in the hammer while fellow junior Andrew Huber will compete in the first half of IU’s first decathlon of the year.
Huber will compete in the last five events of the decathlon to start Friday’s session. Between the two days, he will have to compete in the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run.
Day two will also consist of sophomores Willie Morrison and David Schall competing in the shot put. Huntoon will be running in his first 1,500-meter of the year along with six other distance and middle-distance runners.
“Since some of us took the first week off, this is the first chance to run a fast time for a lot of us so hopefully we can get some guys as regional qualifiers in it,” Huntoon said.
After finishing seventh at the indoor Big Ten Championships in the 800-meter, Huntoon said he wasn’t worried about this being the first 1,500-meter of the year for him.
“In outdoor season, I like to run both races,” Huntoon said. “It’s kind of two different animals. You can’t attack them the same way. The 1,500 is more of a strategy-based race, so I’m just excited to go out there and see what I got.”
Day three will feature sophomore Eric Bethea in the triple jump competition, but the majority of Saturday will be dominated by relays. On top of running the 1,500 on Friday, Huntoon will also be asked to run the 800-meter leg of the distance medley relay, which is one of several relays scheduled.
Along with the DMR, the Hoosiers will also compete in the sprint medley relay, the 4x100m relay, the 4x400m relay and the 4x800 relay.
