The Ravens’ indoor track and field teams traveled to Indianapolis on Saturday to take on competition from Division II, Division III and NAIA foes at the UIndy Season Opener. The stiff competition provided a great measuring block for AU in the non-team scored event.
Returning D-III All-American Garrett Cooley dominated in the long jump, leaping 7.26 meters. He was the only competitor in the field to jump over 7.0 meters. This was also Cooley’s best jump, surpassing his previous record of 7.18 meters from outdoor season.
“It felt good to beat my record,” Cooley said. “It also feels good to be able to predict where I’m going to be in the next few weeks as well.”
He expects to sit around 7.24 to 7.26 meters for the next few weeks and try to re-break his record on Jan. 27 at the Fred Wilt Open.
Cooley’s jump of 7.26 meters converts to 23.82 feet. By the end of indoor season he hopes to travel a full 24 feet and touch 25 feet for outdoor season.
Cooley was not the only Raven to post a strong showing. Ian Leatherman won the 3000 Meter Run after posting a time of 9:10.93. Malik Davis, Hunter Loller, Toluwani Adebakin and Xavier Williams won the 4×400 Relay with a time of 3:33.31.
Sophomore Mariah Murray led the women’s team with a third place finish in the high jump, leaping 1.60 meters. Victoria Baver placed sixth with a jump of 1.50 meters.
“In the three years I’ve been to this meet,” Cooley explained, “this is the best Anderson has performed. It was a good first meet for the freshmen, newcomers and veterans alike.”
Cooley also touched on some of the team goals for the rest of the season.
“We want to improve our score at the conference meet,” he said. “We also want to challenge Rose-Hulman, a conference track power.”
He added that the team would like to see more athletes qualify for the national tournament as well.