January 23, 2012

(Indianapolis, IN) The Indiana Invaders experienced a sobering weekend at Indiana University's Gladstein Invitational where getting to the meet was the first challenge.

Friday evening of the two day meet saw Nathanael Browning roll through a tentative but successful 400 meter test of his recently enflamed achilles tendon.

Saturday began with James "Jimmy" O'Brien unable to safely return to Indiana in time to join his teammates due to severe weather road conditions. With O'Brien not at the starting line for the Invitational 800 a smaller field looked to have plenty of room for a fast, clean race.

Ricardo Bell assumed the early lead in the Invitational 800 (race link) with all participants having a clean start at a somewhat conservative initial 200 meter pace and then at 400 meters the race went bad. Just as Jason Springer and Riley Masters started to initiate a push toward the front of the race they tangled at the 400 meter mark with a severe crash  ensuing.  Springer and Masters did not continue and the air seemed to be completely drawn from the entire remainder of the race. Bell dropped out shortly after the crash and all of three athletes finished the race.

In the only resemblance of a bright spot on this weekend for the Invaders, Drake Sterling worked his way through a sluggish effort at 600 meters for his third Personal Record (PR) in the last three weekends. Sterling's PR runner up finish in 1:19.48 in the Invitational 600(race link) leaves him poised for a strong return appearance at 800 meters in the next couple weeks.

Coach Greg Harger said, "We had good healthy competitive reminders for all of us, athletes and coaches, that some days things just start poorly and don't get better.  Fortunately there is generally another day and in our case that will be next weekend. The track owes us nothing and how we mentaly approach our return to training and racing will be most important to this short indoor season's successes or failures". Harger added, "Our next competitive outing should see another step forward for Browning's recovery and the return of Juan Carrillo to competition from his recent foot injury which caused a stretch of compromised training".

The Indiana Invaders, a not-for-profit organization competing at USA National Championships since 1999, provide a resident-based, athlete-centered support system based in Indianapolis, Indiana.