This weekend IU will travel to multiple meets this weekend after a strong performance at the Meyo Invitational on Feb. 7-8.
The team’s jumpers will travel to the University of Arkansas for the Tyson Invite, including senior Adam Coulon and freshman Nathan Stone in the pole vault. Sophomores Matthew Schadler and Arjun Jha will travel to Boston for the David Hemery Valentine Invite.
The jumpers will look to take advantage of the rest they got last weekend and try to impress in Arkansas. Coulon, Stone and junior Brock Mammoser are seeded sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.
Schadler and Jha will compete in the mile in Boston. They have both broken the four-minute mark in the race and will compete with top competition during the meet, including graduate senior Kasey Knevelbaard of Florida State University who has a time of 3:57.
A group of middle-distance runners, including senior Bryce Millar in the 5,000-meter and senior Adam Wallace in the 800-meter, will travel to the Iowa State Classic.
The rest of the athletes will compete in Hoosier Hills on Friday in Bloomington.
“We’re taking our athletes all over the country to try and get some competition that’ll help our athletes try and put some NCAA qualifying times up on the board,” Helmer said.
Helmer said this is the time of year when athletes start to focus solely on times that’ll qualify them for the NCAA Indoor Championships and allow them to compete at a high level in the Big Ten Championships.
“We’ve got a lot of people who are on the cusp of doing something really special,” Helmer said. “We’ve also got people who have already hit it, and they need to back it up with another good performance this weekend.”
One of those performances includes senior Willie Morrison, who will compete at the Hoosier Hills meet in Bloomington. This past weekend, Morrison won the Meyo Invitational by breaking the school record and the Philippines national record in the shot put. Morrison was also named Big Ten Track and Field Athlete of the Week.
“We’ve been waiting to see him do that,” Helmer said. “He’s the greatest shot putter in IU history, and he’s No. 6 in the country. We’re expecting big things from him down the stretch.”
