ALLENDALE, Mich. - The IUPUI men's track team flooded the 5,000m heats at the GVSU Big Meet on Friday (Feb. 11) and ultimately saw eight walk away with new personal bests, given the opportunity to run in fast races. Six Jaguars toook at least 10 seconds off their prior bests in the 5K event. 

"It's always a good day when the majority of guys put down lifetime bests. Nate Kaiser and Eric Petersen continue to impress this indoor season," head coach Justin Roeder said. "These guys have been on a mission since freshman year to find out how far they can push themselves in this sport, and while they both ran personal bests, I believe this is just the beginning for them. We knew they had these times in them, we just had to wait for the right race. I'm ecstatic they both got the chance to show off all their hard work."

Kaiser placed third in his race in a personal best time of 14:30.55 to take 16 seconds off his prior best and Petersen clocked a time of 14:30.69 to finish 11th in his race and shed 10 seconds off his previous best. 

"The whole team is fit and we have been waiting to light it up in a fast race, so when the opportunity came today to run fast, we took it," Petersen said. "It's a good feeling to ride going into indoor conference."

Senior Eric Hoffman spun a time of 14:46.06 and Nick Perkins (14:55.07) and Grant Moon (14:56.46) finished in succession in their race with Perkins notching a new PR. Senior Alex Ratkovich ran a new personal best time of 15:00.82 to take 13 seconds off his indoor best and Mitchell Rans won his heat by eight seconds and turned in a new personal best time of 15:15.73. Other Jags to post a new 5K PR on Friday were Wilson Whicker (15:34.82), Matthew Leppert (15:43.91) and Justin Amburgy (15:56.71). 

"The other highlight of the day was Mitchell Rans winning his section with the gutsy tactic of leading early on and running away from the field," Roeder said. "We are looking forward to tomorrow's 3,000m event at Grand Valley and the rest of our squad competing at UIndy."

In the 400m event, James Kuisel spun a time of 50.63, just missing a personal best. 

On Saturday (Feb. 11), the Jags will split the roster between Grand Valley and UIndy's Gerry England Invitational.