INDIANAPOLIS - Ten members of the IUPUI men's track and field team registered new personal bests as the Jaguars competed at the Butler Invitational inside the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Saturday (Jan. 20).
Andrew Whitinger headlined the group, winning the 3,000m event in a personal best time of 8:14.81 to cap the Jaguars' entrants.
"I thought it was a good day," head coach
Justin Roeder said. "We didn't expect a lot coming into it. We had a couple individuals cross the line first in their heats, which was great to see. I thought the freshmen did really great and our upperclassmen kind of led that way with their experience."
Aided by 2016 Olympian Rob Mullett setting the pace, Whitinger latched onto leader for the duration of the race before running the final five laps virtually uncontested by the rest of the field. Whitinger took the win of 22 entrants spread over two heats while
Mitchell Gits was third at 8:29.25.
Nick Perkins placed sixth overall at 8:36.14.
"It feels good. The track's really fast. I think we're really blessed to have something like this in Indianapolis," Whitinger said. "I felt really good. We were lucky to have Rob Mullett, a former Olympian, pace it today. I just got out and tucked in behind him through the first 2K and kind of just picked up the last little bit over the last 1K and pushed it home.
"My main strategy was to go out there and race smart within myself."
Earlier in the day, a trio of Jaguars took the top three spots in their heat of the 800 as
Janan Pillai won his heat at 1:59.00 and freshman
Noah Price was second at 1:59.36. Behind him,
Nolan King crossed at 2:01.60.
All five of IUPUI's entries in the mile earned new personal bests as
Wilson Whicker won his heat in a time of 4:30.97 and
Connor Murphy made his IUPUI debut with a time of 4:32.02.
Alex Alba spun a time of 4:40.52 and
Nicolas Probst finished at 4:42.26.
Andrew Blake rounded out the entries at 4:42.49.
The Jaguars will return to action next week when they host the IUPUI Invitational at the Fall Creek Pavilion on Friday (Jan. 26) and Saturday (Jan. 27).
