Photo courtesy of IU Athletics:

A strong showing on Saturday by the Indiana University Track and Field team led to a clean sweep of the Purdue Boilermakers.

Both the men’s and women’s teams won in convincing fashion, the men won 88-46, and the women achieved their victory by even a greater margin, 97-39.

Head Coach Ron Helmer was pleased with both teams’ performances.

“I’m really happy…. Excited to move on to what comes next.”

Helmer also noted that this victory was a little more special because it came against Purdue, and noted that this dual meet will continue for the next couple of years.

“It means a lot to beat your in state rival… Our kids enjoy beating Purdue, we [the coaches] enjoy beating Purdue,” Helmer said.

Triple jumper Olu Olamigoke was also excited about the win but noted there’s no bad blood between the two teams.

“ I think it’s more of a friendly rivalry on track side, but its still a rivalry, so anytime you can beat them it feels great,” Olamigoke said.

Olamigoke had one of the strongest performances of the day with a triple jump of just under 51 feet 3 inches. That jump put him at second in the country, however Olamigoke knows it’s early in the season and there’s room for improvement.

“There’s still things even on that jump that I really could have improved on, but it’s only the second week of the season,” Olamigoke said.

Kind Butler won the 60 and 200-meter dash with Tyler Sult finishing second in both. Sult was also a member of the 4×400 meter relay team that beat both of Purdue’s relay teams.

A couple of the more exciting races of the evening came from the middle distance runners.

In the 600 meter dash, coming up on the final turn, only Ryan Hindes looked to be in the running for points, but on the final straight away both De’sean Turner and Daniel Stockberger passed Purdue runners to give IU a clean sweep.

Turner had a flair for the dramatics as in the 800 an almost identical situation occurred. Turner was just behind Purdue’s Kevin Griffith, but passed him at the last moment to earn the victory.

Adrien Dannemiller was just the latest IU distance runner to make a name for himself, as he coasted to a four second win in the 3k.

Andrew Bayer and Andrew Poore went 1-2 in the mile posting the top two times so far this season in Division 1.

IU was also able to get a strong showing from their field events, which included Olamigoke winning the triple jump and Dan Galos winning the weight throw.

Helmer took notice of the field teams impressive showing, which completed a solid team victory.

“All the way across the board we got good efforts,” Helmer said.

Also impressing Helmer was how well the women’s team performed against the Boilermakers.

“The two girls in the mile, Kelsey Duerksen and Breanne Ehrman… did a great job and Monique Riddick had a big PR in the weight [throw].” Helmer said.

Riddick noted that she’s happy with the win but knows it’s early in the season and things wont come easy later in the year.

“I know I will have to step up my game once we hit February and Big Tens/Nationals comes closer,” Riddick said.

Courtney Woodard competed in three events, winning the 60-meter hurdles and just missing out on points in the long jump and triple jump.

Other strong performances included Aireonna Baily winning both the 60 and 200-meter dash, Duerkson and Ehrman also going 1-2 in the 800, Ruth Christopher winning the 600, and Chelsea Blanchard winning the 3k.

The men and women both carry confidence into the Gladstein Invitational this weekend after the big wins against Purdue. The men’s team comes in ranked 8^th in the preseason polls, the first regular season poll will come out on January 24th.

The race of the meet should be the guys 3k as a couple of the participants are looking to break major records.

A bright future is in store for both teams, as each meet from here on out will be more important then the next.