The day is over and finals are tomorrow to go with a few other events.
The Women, not the Men are looking to be in great shape through day one. They currently have the lead at 46 points with 4 girls qualifying for tomorrow's finals. Those 4 along with the high/long/triple jumpers and the 5000m all have an opportunity to score tomorrow.
The big standouts of the day were our shot putters. Faith Sherrill broke a Big Ten record with her final throw of the day when she had already had the event in the bag. Very impressive that in a throw that doesn't matter she can break the Big Ten record. Very exciting. Monique Riddick also threw for second place and nearly 2 feet better than third place. That's right, IU came first and second by more than 2 FEET. That is ridiculous!
The pole vaulters went 2, 4, 6 overall. Kelsie Ahbe led the group with Vera Neuenswander and Stephanie Chin following respectively. They scored 16 of the team's 46 points in that one event to follow up the shot putters 18 points. Those two events by themselves garnered 34 points between them. Can't beat that.
The pentathletes Laura Morris and Courtney Woodard fourth and eighth to garner 6 points for the team and the Distance Medley Relay team of Breanne Ehrman, Samantha Gwin, Arianne Raby and Kelsey Duerksen ran well enough for fifth and the eighth best time in IU track history. Finally Sarah Pease took seventh in the 3000m. These four team/individuals combined brought in the last 12 points for the Hoosiers.
Tomorrow should shape up to be a hell of a finish and an overall victory is well within reach. Now for the men... make the jump.
The Men are in a great position to make a move on the final day tomorrow. They'll wake up in the morning in third place overall but with a great potential to strike for a lot of points. The current standings have Ohio State in the lead with 34 points, Minnesota 30 and IU in third with 28.5. It is quite a cluster at the top and it is still anyone's game. 14 points is all that separates first and fifth place and as the girls showed us today any one event can flip the standings on their head. Also if it makes you feel better Purdue currently has 7 points total. That is not a typo, SEVEN. Needless to say we can chalk up some points in the Crimson and Gold Cup.
Andy Bayer had himself a day along with his distance companions of Andrew Poore and Ben Hubers. Bayer shattered the facility record in the 3000m by over 4 seconds and qualified for tomorrow's mile final. As I explained yesterday that is ridiculous. Poore took fourth and Hubers took sixth. Those three contributed 18 of the 28.5 points today. Distance runners are awesome. How awesome you say? WELL, the Distance Medley also had a good day Danny Stockberger, Chris Vaughn, Joe Holahan and Andy Weatherford ran for IU and finished with a sixth place finish good for 3 more points.
The other scorers of the day were the pole vaulting tandem of Stefano Koufidis and Derek Messmer. Koufidis placed third and Messmer took a tie for seventh. Those performances contributed the final points bringing the total to 28.5.
Tomorrow is shaping up to be a cascade of points as well that can see the Hoosiers finish high atop the podium. Eight men qualified for runs in the finals and at least five look to finish in the top 3 if not win. If the meet shapes up the way it looks and the high/long/triple jumpers and 5000m guys perform the way they should I can see IU coming away with a rout.