By Adam Hensley
As the men’s indoor track and field season kicks off, the Big Ten remains one of the top conferences in the nation.
Indiana finished seventh in the 2015 Big Ten indoor meet.
Tre’tez Kinnaird, one of the team’s top runners, won the 800 meters with a time of 1:48.89. However, he will not compete for the Hoosiers this season; he transferred to Oklahoma State.
Head coach Ron Helmer believes his team has moved on from Kinnaird’s departure, and he maintains that the squad is a young but competitive bunch.
“We recruited well and are very young, so it is difficult to predict how quickly our young talent will be able to be competitive in what has become a very, very good conference,” he said.
Helmer recruited thrower Willie Morrison from Leavenworth, Kansas, who threw for more than 70 feet last year in high school. Helmer hopes he can make an immediate impact.
Daniel Kuhn returns to pick up the 600 and 800 meters. Terry Batemon is also one of the Hoosiers to watch, winning the Outdoor Big Ten pole vault.
Eleven points ahead of Indiana in the indoor meet, Ohio State finished sixth. The Buckeyes improved as the season went on, placing fourth in the outdoor meet.
The Buckeyes will bring back their only indoor All-Big Ten athlete, Zach Bazile. The sophomore won the long jump with a leap of 25-2. He finished third in the outdoor meet.
Junior Lamar Bruton returns in the middle distance. In the indoor Big Ten meet, he was second in the 400 and was also a part of the third-place 4×400.
Michigan ended up right above the Buckeyes.
The Wolverines’ specialty is their top-notch distance running. In the cross-country season, Michigan took home the Big Ten title and went on to place ninth in the NCAA Championship.
Senior Mason Ferlic is arguably one of the best distance runners in the conference. He finished second in the Big Ten cross-country meet, won the 5,000 meter run in the indoor Big Ten Championship, and was on the indoor All-Big Ten team.
Iowa head coach Layne Anderson, who specializes in distance events, knows his runners are up to the task of running against the best of the best, especially in the case of Ferlic.
“We enjoy competing against all [teams], because we know it will require us to be at our best,” he said.
Aside from their distance runners, Michigan’s Chris Maye was also a member of the indoor All-Big Ten team, winning the 60 meters. Derek Sievers placed third in the shot put, throwing 61-4.
Penn State finished fourth in the Big Ten indoor meet and is poised for improvement this season.
“I think we will have a very good team this indoor season and am excited to get it started,” head coach John Gondak said. He noted that his goals for his team were to be one of the top teams in the conference and advance athletes to the NCAA meet.
Nittany Lion Brannon Kidder strives to be one of the top seniors on the team. In the 2015 indoor meet, he finished eighth in the 600 metersand second in the mile.
His coach believes that he will step up even more this season.
“Brannon has always been a great leader in our program,”Gondak said. “He is a captain for us this year and is on a mission to help our program be the best it can be.”
Also to be noted, three of the four runners (Kidder being one of them) return for Penn State’s first-place distance medley.
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