By Tyler Wooten
GoSycamores.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Junior All-American David Timlin, the women's distance crew and the women's hurdle crew led the Sycamores on the track for a spectacular day at the Hoosier Hills Invite inside Gladstein Fieldhouse on Friday night.
One week off his amazing 4:00.42 win in the Meyo Mile at Notre Dame, Chicago native David Timlin went off again – this time in the 3,000 meter race. Timlin destroyed All-American John Mascari's school record of 8:08.10, running a blazing fast 7:58:59 to become the first sub-8:00 runner in Indiana State history and the 22nd in all of the United States this indoor season at the time he finished the race (which doesn't count competition elsewhere this weekend).
The race got off to a very fast start, with the rabbit taking them to a 4:16 mile split before stepping out. Rather than slow down though, ISU's own Timlin stepped up and assumed the rabbit role and led all the way down the stretch until he got caught by Indiana's Jason Crist (7:56.98) and the unattached Ben Hubers (7:58.10) with around 400 meters to go. Despite getting caught, Timlin clocked in a 60-second split on his last quarter-mile.
Nationally, Timlin ranks 10th in the NCAA – putting him in contention to qualify for the indoor national meet – but that rank is sure to slip due to the amount of tremendous distance races going on around the country tonight and tomorrow.
“Unfortunately, he needs to be a little faster than that to qualify for nationals,” said ISU men's head coach John McNichols. “However, that has more to do with how good the country is; he's a formidable opponent. Everybody has a lot of respect for him. The challenge now is deciding how we use him these next few weeks leading up to the conference meet.”
It was déjà vu for the women's milers as well. Just one week after Jessi Conley and Brittany Neeley set the No. 2 and 3 all-time marks in the mile at Notre Dame, Neeley and Austin took those two spots for themselves at IU on Friday night.
Neeley, a sophomore IU transfer who ran 4:45.70 her freshman season with the Hoosiers, won the mile tonight at a new ISU best of 4:51.09 – second all-time behind interim director of athletics Angie Lansing's 4:50.12 from 1998 and fourth currently in the Missouri Valley this season.
Fellow sophomore Taylor Austin finished right behind her in second place at 4:51.86, a 10-second PR that makes her the third-best miler in ISU history and the fifth-best in the conference this season.
“It's just amazing to be watching them run and realize how fast this is,” said ISU women's head coach Angela Martin. “They ran smart. The first 400 was slow, so they sat back early on and were able to have a chance to kick later.”
It was a particularly good race for Austin – a returning All-MVC honoree outdoors in the steeplechase – who ran the third-fastest 5K in school history last week. After tonight, four of the top-six mile times in school history have been run this season under Martin and distance coach Kyle Walsh: Neeley, Austin, Conley (fourth, 4:53.70) and freshman Brooke Moore (sixth, 4:57.07).
“I thought Taylor was going to catch her,” Martin said. “It was an amazing race by both of them, especially Taylor, who ran a 5K last week. They worked really well together tonight.”
However, the fireworks started off on Friday night with a very strong win in the women's 60 meter hurdles by sophomore Patrycja Dziekonska. The New Jersey native ran a solid 8.79 in prelims before exploding to 8.57 in finals for the win – the third-fastest time in school history and fourth-best in the MVC this season. In the process, she beat out returning All-MVC hurdler Remy Abrought of Southern Illinois.
Also placing in finals were sophomore Micaela McLean (third, 8.78) and senior Taylor Gilles (sixth, 9.00). For McLean, that 8.78 is a career-best that moves her up to seventh all-time at ISU.
“Our hurdlers did a tremendous job today,” Martin said. “Pati beat out a really good conference opponent today in Remy. She just had a great start and charged to the finish for the win.”
Three also advanced to finals in the men's hurdles, despite being without All-American senior Adarius Washington for the second straight week. Junior Marcus Neely ran the fastest time in prelims at 7.97 before some trouble with the first hurdle in finals caused him to slip to 8.04 for third place. Behind him were Jacob Wright (fourth, 8.16, PR) and Grant Stamm (fifth, 8.20).
Also having a solid day on the track was sophomore Jessi Conley in the fast section of the 800. One week after running the No. 2 mile time in school history (now No. 4 after tonight), she put together the fifth-best 800 on Friday night at 2:12.42 for third place.
“It was really nice to see Jessi go in the 800,” Martin said. “She just hung around there in that fast race. She's always been strong, but she's gotten much faster, and it was good to see her race like that.”
In the field, sophomore Jamie Newsome won the triple jump yet again at a solid 12.30m (40-04.25). Following her was junior Ethanity Dunn, who set a new PR and improved upon her spot in eighth place all-time with a third-place finish at 11.67m (38-03.50).
It was also a career-day for freshman pole vaulter Emily Brady. The Nashville, Ind., native led the Sycamore women in the event, setting a new career-best in fifth place at 3.71m (12-02.00) – already putting her into a tie for 10th all-time at ISU.
“She's is starting put it together,” Martin said. “She's kind of been hurt, so it was great to see what she could do while healthy.”
Other impressive field performances include: LeVisa Evans (second, 1.63m/5-04.25) and Ioanna Koltsidou (third, 1.63m/5-04.25) in the women's high jump; DeSean Prentice in the men's high jump (second, 1.99m/6-06.25); Jamar Brown in the shot put (second, 17.17m/56-04.00); Connor Curley in the men's pole vault (third, 5.11m/16-09.25); and Devyn Mikell in the men's long jump (third, 7.32m/24-00.25).
“Tonight we were kind of like how we've been,” McNichols said. “Bits and pieces were very good, and we're right there. It really wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either. We made a little progress, but we need people to get healthy. We're holding out a lot of folks right now, and we're hoping everyone will be back in action in a few weeks.”
“Overall, sitting and watching the meet I thought we had a really good day,” Martin said. “Everybody is getting focused as we tune up for the end of the season. We're making good progress and we're just hoping to finish on a high note.”
Indiana State has one weekend of competition left before the MVC Indoor Championships at Northern Iowa on Feb. 27-28: a split-squad weekend at the EIU Friday Night Classic on Feb. 19 and at the Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invite on Feb. 20.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.
