JOE HASENSTAB | Staff Reporter
The Butler track and field team had two meets this weekend at Indiana University and the University of Washington.
The majority of the team participated in the Indiana Relays at IU, while Butler sent four of its top distance runners to Seattle for the University of Washington Invitational.
In Seattle, juniors Mara Olson and Katie Good competed for the women, while senior Tom Anderson and sophomore Erik Peterson ran for the men.
Olson placed sixth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:15.
Butler’s three other runners all competed in the 5,000-meter race.
Peterson finished third with a time of 14:21, and Anderson finished in fifth place.
Good earned 12th place in the women’s 5,000-meter run.
Coach Matt Roe said he was pleased with the team’s performance.
“I thought we did really well as a group,” Roe said. “The races weren’t necessarily set up to be as fast as we’d hoped, timewise, but I thought they performed well and placed high at an elite meet.”
What made the meet “elite” was that it had runners at both the collegiate and professional levels competing. Teams sponsored by Nike and Adidas were there, as well as a team sponsored by Oiselle, a women’s running apparel company.
Good said the level of competition exceeded her expectations.
“For me personally, there were some professional athletes that I never thought I’d race against,” she said. “The level of competition was definitely the best I’ve ever raced against.”
Roe said he believed the rest of the team did well overall at the Indiana Relays, pointing out that senior Shelbi Burnett and junior Tom Curr both ran well in the mile race.
Burnett placed sixth, running a 5:02, and Curr finished fifth in the men’s race with a 4:03 time. Curr finished less than a second behind another collegiate runner, and the three top spots went to runners for Team Indiana Elite and Adidas.
Next weekend, the team will head to Notre Dame for the Meyo Invitational.
“That will be a really good test for us because it’s a high level meet, but we have a good amount of athletes who can be successful in that meet,” Roe said. “We’ll have some of our elite distance runners in that meet, but some of our sprinters and jumpers will be, too. So it will be a really good team atmosphere.”
