So much for inexperience.

The men’s track team had five top 3 finishes this weekend. Of those five, four of them are sophomores or younger, making this supposed learning meet a big performance meet.

During last week’s practice, the big emphasis was going fast and racing, assistant coach Nate Wiens said. This was apparent through all track races, especially in the distance races.

Freshman Yonas Mehbratu finished second in the mile running a time of 4 minutes, 15 seconds, and along with him sophomore Hillary Bor ran an 8:14 in the 3,000 meter run special. Daniel Murray, another sophomore, finished 3rd in the 3,000-meter, running a time of 8:42.

Ihmels was impressed with Mehbratu’s second place finish

“Having that opportunity to get in the race and have success was important for him,” Ihmels said. “It was a little under-distance for him, but to have success like that is great for him.”

Ihmels also said Bor is on his way to the level Ihmels expects him to be.

“His training is starting to come around and he is starting to get back into the form he was at the end of the season last year, so I expect him to run pretty well this weekend and throughout the season,” Ihmels said.

Although the distance crew did well, the real story might be the throwers. Luke Pinkelman and Zac Brouillette started off very well at the ISU Open and continued to improve last weekend.

Both took third in their respective events, Pinkelman in the shot put and Brouillette in the weight throw. Pinkelman, however, achieved a special feat this weekend, as he threw himself onto the list for possible participants in the NCAA meet in College Station, Texas, in four weeks.

Pinkelman threw a distance of 17.77 meters on his last throw, squeezing by the 17.75 provisional requirement.

“I still want to throw farther but I think it’s a good start…it was a rough start to the meet but I finally started getting it towards the end and I was really happy with my throw,” Pinkelman said.

Brouillette has already met the requirement to get on the list but still expects to continue to improve and work at throwing the 21.05 that automatically qualifies him for the NCAA Championships.

“I felt good about this weekend, my preparation was good and the competition was good,” Brouillette said. “It was the first meet where I’ve competed against guys that were up to my level, so I pushed myself a little more than I normally would.”

Overall, Ihmels was impressed with the team’s performance this week.

“We got some things accomplished this weekend, there were some bright spots…but we’re making some progress and I think we got what we needed to get done at Nebraska,” he said.