Butler's track and field team travelled to Bloomington, Ind., this weekend for Indiana University's two-day indoor Opener meet at Gladstein Fieldhouse, bringing home a handful of wins and shattering two school records in the process.
Junior All-American Mara Olson smashed Butler's indoor record in the 3000m run, clocking 9:11.86 in her race on Friday and just missing the fieldhouse record of 9:08.42. Olson's time gave her not only an individual win but also the current lead in the NCAA for this indoor year.
"That's been one of my dream goals coming into Butler," Olson said, "to at one point have a record, so I was ecstatic. I'm sure it'll be broken soon - I hope it's broken soon - but it feels really good.
"It's an excellent way to go into winter break, with high confidence and high motivation to get me through the cold weeks."
Along with Olson's record run, the men's 1600m relay also set a new school record. Seniors Andrew Wallace, Alex Berry, Nigel Spears and Matt Schumacker ran 3:21.42, taking down the previous record from 2011.
In the men's individual races, Berry won the 500m dash with a time of 1:05.49 while Wallace was fourth in a time of 1:06.04. Senior Tom Anderson also took home an individual title, clocking 8:16.14 in the 3000m run and leading Butler to four of the top six spots. Sophomore Erik Peterson was second with a time of 8:20.28 and senior Harry Ellis finished in fourth with a time of 8:28.29, while junior James Martin just missed a top-five finish, coming in sixth in 8:29.84.
Sophomore Keigan Culler clocked 4:29.47 in the men's mile, good for third place. In the 1000m run, sophomore Luke Zygmunt just missed the top five, clocking 2:28.38 for sixth place.
For the women, junior newcomer Katie Good was runner-up in the mile run with a time of 5:00.43. Following Olson in the 3000m run, senior Shelbi Burnett and freshman Alex Van Hoof finished fourth and fifth, clocking 10:09.19 and 10:17.97, respectively.
Both teams will be on hiatus for the rest of the year and will return to the track in 2014 at the Illini Open on January 12.