After road trips to Arizona, California and Alabama, the ISU women’s track and field team will hit the road again this weekend for the Jim Duncan Invitational.

This time, however, the road trip will be quite a bit shorter. The Cyclones will be staying in the Midwest for the first time this outdoor season. In fact, the Cyclones won’t even need to cross state lines.

The team will be competing in Des Moines at the same track the Drake relays will be held at in a couple of weeks. While the Jim Duncan Invitational isn’t as prestigious as the Drake Relays, the team is looking at the meet as an opportunity to prep for the Drake Relays.

“The Jim Duncan [Invitational] is kind of a smaller meet … but, it’s on the same track as the track relays, so it’s a good preview for that,” said distance runner Madison Nagle.

The Drake Relays is one of the most well-known track meets in the country.

After traveling for the beginning weeks of the outdoor season, the Cyclones are excited to get some “home field advantage,” even though they’re not quite at home.

“Even though its 45 minutes away it still kind of feels like a home meet with all the support in the crowd,” Nagle said.

In addition to being near home, many Cyclones will be running their first race of the outdoor season here, while others who made a strong push in the postseason of the indoor season will take the meet off to rest for the next few weeks of competition.

The season-opening meet for certain athletes provides a chance to work on certain parts of their game, and can act as a stepping stone to later meets in the season.

“I’m running the mile this weekend just to get some fast foot speed in before I do a [5k] and a [10k] in the upcoming weeks,” said Anna Buenneke, who noted that she doesn’t usually run the mile event.

Buenneke said she wants to use the meet to get her ready for her marquee events a little bit later in the outdoor season.

As a senior, Buenneke is going into each meet with a sense of urgency. The senior said she wants to treat every race as an opportunity as her career begins to wind down.

“Since I’m a senior and graduating in May, you just kind of look at every race to go out there and run really well,” Buenneke said.

The Jim Duncan Invitational will begin April 11 and run through April 12.