With the indoor portion of the track and field season ending two weeks ago at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., the men and women of the ISU track and field squads turn their attention to their next obstacle, outdoor track.

The women are coming off their first ever top 10 finish at the indoor championships behind now nine-time All-American Lisa Koll. The Cyclones will begin with Koll taking the rest of the distance runners to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. Track coach Corey Ihmels is using the beginning of the outdoor season as a partial refresher for his squad, especially the distance runners.

“In a sense it’s a fresh start,” Ihmels said. “I also think because of how we finished the indoor season, we have to use that as a little bit of momentum; and with the long-distance kids, they go from cross-country to indoor and then to outdoor season, and they get worn down.”

The rest of the track and field teams will head south for the weekend to compete in the UT Arlington Invitational to try and get some experience for the squads in nice weather.

“The idea is to get warmer weather. In Iowa, it could be warmer here than in Texas, but you just never know,” Ihmels said of his team’s warm weather travels.

The Cyclones are yet to have a true meet away from home this season, as they were able to host eight different competitions at their home track inside Lied Recreation Athletic Center.

The women’s sprinters and hurdlers will be following the performance of Jenna Caffrey, a provisional NCAA qualifier in the 60-meter hurdles during the indoor season. Caffrey will make the transition to the 100-meter hurdles for the outdoor season, while many other athletes are shuffled to different races as the transition from indoor to outdoors is made.

The top returner on the men’s side will be junior Hillary Bor, who took second in the steeplechase at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Bor, the Big 12 Indoor champion in the mile run, will be attempting to make his third consecutive trip to Eugene, Ore., for the Outdoor Championships this season.

For the men’s sprinters, an exciting change will be the addition of the 4×100 meter relay, one of the more exciting races of the outdoor season. For the men, junior Amara Sama, sophomores Clint Martin and Bryce Colston and freshman Patrick Lewis will be the first relay squad on the track this weekend in Arlington, Texas. Other notable Cyclone competitors on the men’s side will be junior thrower Josh Koglin in the hammer throw, freshman sprinter Brian Sandvig in the 400-meter dash and sophomore Yonas Mebrahtu in the 5,000-meter run.

Two of Iowa State’s top runners, senior distance runner Kiel Uhl and sophomore sprinter Ian Warner, will be two of the notable Cyclones not competing this weekend as they continue to rehab injuries sustained in the indoor season. Uhl is a returning NCAA qualifier in the 10,000-meter run and Warner was a sixth-place finisher at the 2009 Drake Relays.

“We’re not going to put [Warner] back on the track until he is absolutely ready, and one reason why is he because he’s not just a conference-level athlete, he’s much better,” said sprinters and hurdlers coach Nate Wiens. “We’re looking more toward the national level with Ian.”

The distance runners will compete both Friday and Saturday at the Stanford Invitational in California, while the majority of the squad competes both days as well for the first time in Arlington.