Indoor Track is Back and Indiana Runner is Leading the Early Action
Indoor track is getting an early start for the club/open portion of the season. With Indiana not having an official indoor season, only a "track" season that does not start competition until February 28th, all early action will come in the form of open and club competitions.
Indiana has always been a little short on open competitions in December and January but Indiana Runner has been leading the way on offering opportunities for athletes. Since 2016, Indiana Runner has offered both a distance and sprint showcase on the same day; offering a chance for each discipline to get an early opportunity for competition.
According to Derek Leininger from Indiana Runner, "The Indiana Runner indoor track & field series started organically as we saw a need for high school athletes to have more preseason indoor track and field opportunities. For years Drake Sterling did an amazing job at running the indoor distance show case meet."
But as demand in Indiana grew, there was no one to really step in and serve the crowds who wanted more opportunities to compete. Colleges have traditionally been the main sites who can host a large-scale indoor in Indiana, although that is changing slowly with some growing facilities. Colleges are in the middle of their season and have trouble organizing a club meet and high schools are hesitant to add anything with the IHSAA rules in place.
This caused Indiana Runner to step in and add more events.
Leininger stated, "In 2016 we added a sprint show case on the same day as the distance show case meet to add another competition opportunity for sprinters. In 2019 we added a second date which offered the full schedule of events, including field events (this meet is called the indoor opener)."
Indiana has grown even more passionate about track and field, causing Indiana Runner to look for more opportunities to add meets according to Leininger. "In 2020 we added a third date also offering the full schedule of events (this meet is called the indoor invitational)."
"In 2021 we were not able to offer any indoor track and field events because of Covid restrictions, but we are back in 2022 offering our three meet schedule again - IR Indoor Opener at Taylor on Jan 22, IR Indoor Invitational at Trine on Feb 19, and the Sprint/Distance Showcase meets on Feb 26 at Taylor."
The Indiana Runner series really fills a hole in the current system and schedule for Hoosier athletes. It is also noteworthy that these meets are ran by current and former coaches who simply want to add to the sport.
Leininger stated, "Our goal with this indoor track & field series is to create high-quality events for athletes of all ability levels to test their preseason fitness and gain valuable competition experiences prior to the official track season. As a former coach I know that the winter is a long offseason - training from November-March without proper indoor facilities and without competitions is a long period of time. We try to offer events in January and February to help provide motivational and developmental opportunities for our Hoosier athletes that are out there putting in work all winter."
For more information, visit the MileSplit Indiana calendar and the Indiana Runner website. To get your indoor and outdoor meets listed on our calendar, send your request to MileSplit Indiana at milesplitin@gmail.com.