The indoor track and field season is coming to a close. While a few athletes still have the NCAA Indoor Championships, the majority of the ISU women’s track and field team will turn its attention to the upcoming outdoor season.

The outdoor season begins just three weeks after the Big 12 Indoor Championship, and just one week after the NCAA Indoor Championship.

While it may seem early for the athletes to turn their attention to the outdoor season this quickly, distance runner Katy Moen said the outdoor season is already on her mind.

“I’m looking forward to the outdoor season already,” Moen said. “I think [the indoor season] gives us a lot of momentum going into the outdoor meets, so having the confidence from this meet carry over will help us.”

After competing well throughout the indoor season, the team plans to continue improving into the outdoor season with its sights set on regional meets and NCAA Championships.

“I think going into outdoors, I know that I’m capable of running faster,” said Maggie Gannon, who won an Big 12 Indoor Championship as a part of the distance medley relay team this past weekend.

“I ran faster this indoor season than any other indoor season, so I’m excited about what outdoors will bring.”

After an indoor season in which the Cyclones had four home meets, the outdoor season will be a little bit different. Iowa State will have no home meets throughout the course of the outdoor season, while the closest meets will be in Des Moines and Iowa City.

Much of the early part of the outdoor season will have the team bouncing around in warmer parts of the country, including Arizona, California and Alabama.

You might suspect that spending so much time on the road would have a negative impact on the team, but Moen said it’s actually the opposite.

“It makes the semester go by faster,” Moen said jokingly about the traveling. “But, I think it’s a really good time for us to bond as a team, it’s actually really fun and it’s nice to get out of the Midwest.”

Regardless of where the team is headed, ISU assistant coach Andrea Grove-McDonough said the team is bringing a newfound confidence and momentum with them.

“I think it’s just given the girls a lot of confidence and they’re realizing what they are capable of,” Grove-McDonough said. “It’s kind of like going into the locker room at half time with all the momentum going your way.”

Ejiro Okoro, who won two Big 12 Championships this indoor season, summed up the team’s mindset going forward.

“The best is yet to come.”