When Tom Akers, the head coach of the men’s track team, said he wanted Jason Bialka to post a good time in the 3000-meter run, he probably couldn’t imagine what kind of time Bialka would turn in.

Bialka shattered Mike Larson’s 25-year-old school record in the 3000 (8:11.2) by almost three seconds with his time of 8:08.36 at the Cannon IV Invitational at Butler University.

“I felt I ran well,” Bialka said, “But unfortunately it’s probably not fast enough to get in.”

Bialka was referring to making the NCAA championships. In the 3000, a time of 8:12 is needed to be a provisional qualifier and a time of 8:00 is needed to be an automatic qualifier. There have been two automatic qualifiers this year, and although Bialka’s time was good enough to qualify provisionally, he is still on the borderline of being invited.

“I should still have at least one more good shot at a better time,” Bialka said. “My last three laps were my fastest, and that’s not the way it usually goes when running a fast time.”

“John Sipple helped pace Jason the first part of the race,” Akers said. “Jason took the lead with about three-quarters of a mile left and was pushed by a runner (Tom Prindiville) from Arizona.”

Bialka and Prindiville pulled away from the field, but Bialka never relinquished his lead and edged out Prindiville by over a full second. The rest of the field was over 10 seconds behind the front runners.

“With the right pace and someone to push him at the end,” Akers said. “We think he can go faster.”

Besides the 3000, Bialka also says he is trying to qualify in the mile for the NCAA championships. The provisional qualifying time is 4:06 and the school record is 4:03.

“We had some other good performances as well,” Akers said. “Our 400-meter crew is really coming around. Jermaine Jones placed ninth with a season best time of 49.01, and Jacob Hunt and Brian Beyers ran season best times. Kevin Christian also ran a season best 1:56.22 in the 800 run.”

In the field events, Dave Astrauskas placed ninth in the weighted throw with a season best toss of 54 feet 3 3/4 inches. Tyler Fagan posted season-best throws in the shot put and the weighted throw.

Only part of the track team competed in the Cannon IV Invitational while the rest of the team continued to prepare for the Ohio Valley Conference championships on Feb. 23-24.

Both the men’s and women’s indoor track teams will host a meet in Lantz Fieldhouse on Friday.