After a weekend off from competition, the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field squads will split up and travel to Tempe, Ariz., for the Sun Angel Track Classic and to Des Moines for the Jim Duncan Invitational this weekend.

The Cyclones will be competing in Tempe for the third consecutive year. The meet in Tempe will host some of the nation’s best collegiate and professional competition. The sprints, jumps and throws groups will make their second trip down south after competing in the UT-Arlington Invitational two weeks ago.

“We got our feet down in Texas with those groups and now they have a chance to get out there and get some great competition, have a race under their belt, some jumps under their belt and some throws under their belt and see if they can’t improve on those,” said coach Corey Ihmels.

For many of the competitors in those groups, a NCAA Regional qualifying mark is in their sights for the next few weekends. At last year’s Sun Angel Track Classic, three Cyclones qualified for the regional meet, including sprinters Lashawn Wright and Ian Warner. A rule change this season will qualify the top 50 competitors in each event for the NCAA Regional meet.

“It’s a little different format, but we won’t really know how that is going to shake out until later in the year. [Arizona State] will be another opportunity for some great weather and great competition,” Ihmels said.

The majority of the distance runners, including senior Lisa Koll who set the collegiate record in the women’s 10,000-meter run two weeks ago, will be out of competition this weekend as they gear up for the Mount Sac Relays in Walnut, Calif., next weekend.

With the annual Drake Relays only two weeks away, the Cyclone athletes competing at the Jim Duncan Invitational will be able to get acclimated with the track for the first time this season.

“Any time you can get on the blue oval and use that facility is good, so this weekend at the Jim Duncan we’ll have a lot of athletes getting a taste of that,” Ihmels said. “We’ll have to start thinking about our lineups for Drake in some of the relays, and I think we have a good shot to do some good things down in Des Moines in a couple weeks.”

The Cyclones in Des Moines will be up against athletes from Northern Iowa, Central, Graceland, Grandview, Grinnell, Simpson and the host Bulldogs of Drake.

Collegiate competition at the 31st annual Sun Angel Track Classic will commence at 9 a.m. Saturday with the women’s discus. In Des Moines, the Jim Duncan Invitational will begin at 9 a.m. Friday and begin again at 10 a.m. Saturday.