JOE HASENSTAB | Staff Reporter
The Butler track and field team is coming off another recording-breaking weekend.
The team sent athletes to Iowa State for the Cyclone Classic and to Purdue University for the Fred Wilt Boilermaker Invitational.
At Iowa State, junior Mara Olson continued her great season with a school record in the 5,000-meter run. She finished third with a time of 16:03.89.
Fellow juniors Katie Good and Nicole Hudec both set personal records in their respective events at Iowa State.
Good surpassed her previous best in the 3,000-meter run when she ran a 9:39.78, and Hudec set an indoor personal best in the triple jump with a mark of 11.57 meters.
On the men’s side, seniors Alex Berry and Tom Anderson competed with junior Tom Curr and sophomore Erik Peterson in the distance medley relay. They finished in 9:37.35, which is a school record.
That time was also good enough for third at the Cyclone Classic and is 10th-best in the nation.
The performance of these four runners
caught Hudec’s attention.
“My favorite performance was the DMR,” Hudec said. “They got third at this meet, and that put them 10th in the nation, which was my favorite thing to watch.”
Peterson and Anderson also ran in the 3,000-meter event, with Peterson achieving a new personal record of 8:08.24.
At the meet in West Lafayette, senior Dominique Stephens was the Bulldog to break a school record. Stephens placed ninth in the weight throw, with a 15.35-meter toss.
Coach Matt Roe said he was impressed by the team’s effort this weekend, especially with those athletes who competed at Iowa State.
“The group here at Iowa State had a tremendous weekend, one of the best weekends in school history,” Roe said.
This weekend, the team will go to New York to compete in its inaugural Big East Conference Championship meet. Roe said the Big East is one of the best conferences in the country, so the Bulldogs have their work cut out for them.
“It’s going to be a highly competitive meet,” the coach said. “We don’t know exactly what that is going to mean in terms of points, but what we do know is we are setting a lot of school records and having great performances when we need to.
“So we’re going to need a lot of momentum, and I feel like we’re going to have great outcomes.”
Roe said he believes all of the pressure in the conference meet will be on the schools that expect to win. He said Butler is not included among those.
“It’s fair to say that we’re not going to win the conference,” he said. “We just don’t have the resources that a few of the schools in the conference do across the board in track and field.”
Hudec, who competes in the 60-meter-dash, said she does not think the Big East is as competitive as the Atlantic 10 Conference for sprinters, but does think it is more competitive for distance runners.
“I think there’s a little more pressure, because I know for the people I’m with this weekend (distance runners), it’s a lot more competitive for them compared to the A-10,” Hudec said. “So I think they feel a little more pressured to step up their game.”
