INDIANAPOLIS - The young, upstart IU Indianapolis men's track and field team showed incredible promise on Saturday (Jan. 18) as the Jaguars opened the indoor season at the Hoosier Horsepower Classic inside Fall Creek Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Fourteen different Jaguars registered new personal best marks, headlined by the efforts of Luke Shappell, Joey Ashman and Riley Nixon in the mile. 

Freshman Sam Grimes paced the team's entries in the 3,000m event to close the day while Alec Moor made his IU Indy debut with a strong showing in the 800m event. 

"When 14 out of 18 athletes run personal bests in their season opener, you can't ask for much more than that," head coach Justin Roeder said. "The guys put their heads down over winter break and got after it. The coaching staff was really pleased with the result and we are excited to see how far they can go in the coming weeks as we target conference as the main focus of the indoor racing campaign."

The Jaguars' day started with Shappell locking in a shootout with a pair of runners from the University of Illinois in the mile. Ultimately, Shappell crossed in third-place overall with a personal best time of 4:10.09 while Ashman, a true freshman, finished at 4:11.18 to place fifth overall. Nixon, also a rookie running his first collegiate meet, placed tenth at 4:14.79. Joey LaPatra led the team's entries in the second heat with a time of 4:20.57 and Ty Perez spun a time of 4:24.08. 

In the 800m event, Moor finished third in his heat in a time of 1:57.60 to ultimately finish tenth overall and Jay Pillai was just off his pace at 1:58.88. 

At night's end, Grimes led the IU Indy entries by winning his second of the 3,000m race with a time of 8:38.85. Veteran Mitchell Gits had put down a time of 8:39.79 in the previous heat and placed just behind Grimes while TJ Gorman finished at 8:54.07 for the Jaguars. 

Earlier in the meet, Andrew Blake was the team's lone entrant in the 5,000m event, running a time of 15:48.43 against a field that was otherwise runners from Illinois-Springfield. 

The Jaguars are slated to compete inside Fall Creek Pavilion again next weekend when they participate in the Crossroads of America Invitational on Friday and Saturday.