Indiana men’s track and field commands Louisville Invitational with six first-place finishes

Indiana males’s observe and area traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, for the Louisville Invitational over the weekend and recorded dominant performances from begin to end. 

On Friday, the Hoosiers’ solely occasion of the day was the hammer throw, by which freshman Sean Mockler took gold with a mark of 64.05 meters. His throw gained the occasion by a bit of over 5 meters. 

Graduate scholar Jyles Ettiene kicked issues off Saturday, putting third within the excessive bounce with a top of two.10 meters. Senior JaiQuan Earls and junior Kynton Grays continued Indiana’s momentum, ending first and second within the lengthy bounce with marks of seven.08 meters and seven.05 meters, respectively. 

Rounding out the sphere occasions was the pole vault, the place the Hoosiers swept the highest three spots. Junior Nathan Stone gained the occasion with a clearance of 5.37 meters, and senior Ryan Lipe and graduate scholar Adam Coulon took the following two spots with respective heights of 5.27 meters and 5.12 meters. 

On the observe, junior Antonio Laidler started his spectacular meet with a second-place end within the 100-meter sprint, recording a time of 10.51 seconds. Laidler would then go on to win the 200-meter sprint, ending with a private greatest time of 20.80 seconds. 

Laidler stated he was content material along with his efficiency, however he additionally has his sight set on postseason meets. 

“I’d say I’m glad, however on the similar time, I’m simply wanting ahead to staying constant and trusting my very own coaching,” Laidler stated. “For the beginning of the season I used to be at all times locked in since day one so I’m simply carrying this momentum ahead, and I’m wanting ahead to successful one thing massive.”

Graduate scholar Kenny Benton adopted up his robust efficiency ultimately week’s Tennessee Relays with a win within the 400-meter sprint, crossing the road with a time of 47.41 seconds. Following was the 800-meter race, the place redshirt sophomore Parker Raymond picked up a win with a time of 1:51.24. 

Head coach Ron Helmer stated whereas the meet’s consequence was encouraging, among the athletes are distracted by qualification occasions for the NCAA meets, and he stated these distractions should be eradicated so the workforce can deal with particular person competitions. 

“I feel once we do this issues will begin to come collectively,” Helmer stated. “We’ve got some actually good athletes, we simply need to put the marks on the board that we count on them to and now’s the time to do this.”

To cap off the meet, the quartet of Raymond, Benton, senior Shaton Vaughn and junior Micah Camble gained the 4×400-meter relay with a time of three:09.86. Their end was almost 9 seconds sooner than the second-place Notre Dame workforce. 

Subsequent week, the Hoosiers return dwelling for the Indiana Invitational on April 22-23 on the Billy Hayes Observe. Friday’s occasions will kick off at 5:30 p.m., and Saturday is slated to get underway at 1 p.m.