Casey Allen | Contributor
Last weekend, the Trojan men's and women's track teams competed in the DePauw University Indoor Classic for one last chance at qualifying for the opportunity to run in nationals at the beginning of March. Several members of both teams made the cut, including junior Matt Hall, one of the men's 5,000-meter runners.
Hall's time of 15:07 in the 5K run earned him a B-level entry into the 2016 Indoor National competition. Despite the men's team finishing third overall in the DePauw invitational, Hall's hopes remain high for this year's group of athletes advancing on to nationals.
"As a team, it's pretty exciting," Hall said. "A few guys have been running really well so that's encouraging."
A few other members of the men's team, including junior Leslie Romer, will accompany Hall to nationals. Not only did Romer qualify this past weekend, he also broke both his own and the university's 200-meter dash record, finishing with the speedy time of 22.01 seconds.
Multiple members of the women's team are also headed off to nationals after a fantastic outcome on Saturday. The women dominated the classic with a whopping 205 points, besting second place Huntington who finished with only a mere 98 points.
The girls are especially proud of their fellow runner Rachel Blagg, a freshman, who is already doing big things before outdoor season has even begun. Not only did Blagg advance to nationals, she is now the proud owner of the university's 800-meter dash record finishing with a time of 2:19.52.
Blagg's time was nearly two seconds faster than the previous record held, and the performance earned her the title of the Crossroads League Athlete of the Week.
The members of the team advancing to nationals are set to run on March 3 in Johnson City, Tennessee at 2 p.m. where they will run for the last time until the outdoor season kicks off the week of March 17 at the Southern Florida Invitational.
Photograph by Fayth Glock
