The ISU men’s track and field team is looking forward to hosting the annual Iowa State Classic on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which will take place in the Lied Recreation Center.

After having a successful road meet last weekend, the team is working to keep up the good times and scores when facing some Big 12 competition in this meet.

ISU distance runners stayed back from the Husker Invitational last weekend, but now the entire squad is looking forward to having a good race the home meet.

“It’s a big race but I’m mostly focusing toward the Big 12’s than this race so I’m just excited to run this race and see how I do,” said distance runner Hillary Bor. “Last week we were able to do a lot of good work outs so it was good to get some good training in and rest over the weekend.”

Coach Corey Ihmels is expecting positive improvement from the men’s 4×400 relay. The team of Ian Warner, Elphas Sang, Clint Martin and Alvin Garnett placed second with the time of 3:14.42 at last week’s Husker Invitational. They came in just .04 seconds behind Colorado’s relay team.

Ihmels has mixed feeling about hosting this giant event.

“It’s one of those weeks where you love it and you hate it,” Ihmels said. “You love because it’s at home and it’s one of the best events in the country, and you hate it because it’s a lot of work.”

The ISU men’s track team will be facing some tough competition from No. 1 Florida and No. 11 Auburn; in-state rivals Iowa; Northern Iowa and Drake, in addition to Big 12 North rivals Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri. Multi-event action will kick off the Iowa State Classic at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.