Marquette University Athletics
In The Fast Lane
2/11/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track
Feb. 9, 2000
Once a week, sophomore Brian Hardin will share his thoughts on the men's track 2000 season. Here is this week's entry:
We are right in the middle of the toughest stretch of meets during this indoor season and the competition gets intense this weekend.
Last weekend, we traveled to a meet at the University of Northern Iowa and faced Kansas, Wisconsin and UNI. The four major conference from the Midwest were represented and I think we did Conference USA proud. We did not have any champions, however many quality performances did take place.
Greg Uher improved his season-best throw with a second-place finish in the shot put. Nic Wucherer tied the school record in the 60-meter hurdles, but because the competition was so fierce, it was good for only seventh place. Our 4x400 relay team ran tough, and cut two seconds off of our time. We got into a heat with some good relay teams and the whole atmosphere before the race was incredible. As the lead-off runners were getting into their blocks, music from "Jock Jams" began blasting through the speakers, which had all the runners and fans geared up for the final event. It was a classic 4x4, with the winning team, Northern Iowa, coming from third place on the last leg to win it.
As for the way I ran, my relay leg was my best relay leg yet this year. I ran the third leg and was able to gut out a 48.5. I was pleased with it since it was the third race in two hours for me. I also ran the 400 and the 200. The 400 was terrible. All that I'll say about it was that it was the worst one I've done all season, and I was very embarrassed that I did it in Iowa. The 200 was much better. I ran tough the whole way and got a new personal record, just missing out on the school record by .13 seconds. On to this weekend's meet: We travel to Iowa State to compete in the Cyclone Classic, which is probably the best meet in the country this weekend. Teams from all over the nation will come to compete on the fastest indoor track in the country in hopes that they will get times good enough to qualify them for the NCAA Championships. I can say right now that we probably won't get any champions this weekend, however this meet is not like a small dual or quadrangular where you want to win. The best thing about this meet is the competition that we'll get and the opportunity to see what the top runners in the country can do.
It is a two-day meet that begins Friday night at 5 p.m. (CT) with the long distance races. The rest of the events are Saturday. Because the field for this meet is so large, there are seeded and unseeded sections of each event. At 10:15 a.m., the unseeded sections get going, and they will last until about 12:30. At 1 p.m., the seeded sections (runners with faster times) will begin. The meet is on the Iowa State campus in the Lied Recreation Center. It truly is a world class meet, and I hope that as many people as possible show up to support Marquette.
I'm looking forward to this weekend at Iowa State, because I think some very special things could happen. I don't want to jinx myself or my teammates, so I'll just say that there are a number of records which could fall on Saturday.
I look forward to seeing a lot of Golden Eagles fans, and, until then, GO MU!!!!
Brian Hardin (Class of 2002)
