The Online Reflector

Indianapolis’ men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Wisconsin-Parkside for the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Indoor meet Feb. 26-27.

Indianapolis’ men’s team won conference for the first time in ten years, defeating last year’s champion Missouri  S&T by four points.

“To the team, it’s been a long time since we’ve won one. It’s like, ‘We finally got one.’ Some of the seniors haven’t seen one so they’re happy to get it,” said junior Kevin Keene.

Head coach Scott Fangman looked at it differently.

“It’s one of the things we try to get accomplished; it’s important to us,” Fangman said. “The challenge to win the indoor because we don’t have an indoor facility. It means we have to overcome a lot of barriers. That’s the fun part.”

Junior thrower Matt Royer earned the win in the weight throw, tossing it 62’ 5”. He also earned a third-place finish in the shot put, throwing it 49’ 8 1/2”.

Senior sprinter Frederick Helm won Male Athlete of the Year award. Helm won two events, setting a school-record time of 6.36 seconds in the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter dash in 22.27 seconds.

Terrell Franklin, who earned the Freshman of the Year award, led the ‘Hounds in points, posting four top-five efforts, including a victory in the long jump with a distance of 23’ 5 1/2.”

Fangman explained.

“He’s a redshirt freshman. It’s not a freshman award. It’s called a newcomer award. We get so many of the kids that do come in and we redshirt them the first year. [Terrell’s] was a real redshirt, meaning he had an injury. His was really serious.”

Keene, who placed third in the heptathlon, was also coming off a medical redshirt, as he fractured his back in the same event a year ago. Keene redshirted during the 2009 outdoor season.

This championship is significant, as UIndy exacted a bit of revenge on Missouri S&T.

“This team, we beat them by four points this year. They beat us by one point outdoor last year. When you get beat by such a small margin, you hate that,” Fangman said. “Made our guys work harder. Guys either work hard or roll over. And we never did (roll over). We’re going to go after it.”

On the women’s side, Indianapolis earned the runner-up position.

If the women’s team had captured the GLVC title too, that would have been special.

“That would have been real big. That means we’d really have overcome a lot,” Fangman said.

Keene agreed with Fangman.

“That would have been something incredible. It would have just been something that we would be on a high because the entire team would be celebrating with each other.”

The women placed second, no small accomplishment. Fangman acknowledged this.

“The women did very well also. I got a bunch of good ladies across the board who did very well. For instance, we have three girls [sophomore Shanese McGregor earned forth, senior Shannon Smith placed sixth and freshman Deltarae martin finished eighth] that placed [in the 55-meter dash].

“We’ve got five girls that placed in the 200-meter dash,” Fangman said. ”We need to work on getting a little more balanced.”

UIndy women placed second and third in the shot put. Freshman Katy Watson and senior Courtney Kuzmicz took second and third, respectively.

With the win, Fangman earned Coach of the Year, an honor which he bluntly attributed to his team.

“Nothing,” he said with a laugh. “That coach of the year thing is given to the coach whose team has won. We hand off the award to the No. 1 team. I owe it to the kids. It was truly a total team effort.”

Keene summed up the hours put in to win the the meet.

“I’m hurting” he said. “However, it’s sweet.”