It has been a short indoor track season for the ISU women’s track team as it goes into this weekend’s ISU Classic to face  one of the most talented fields of athletes it will see this year.

The ISU women will be pitted against teams such as the 5th-ranked Florida Gators and the 19th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners. Iowa State is currently No. 54 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association rankings.

Coach Corey Ihmels has been showing some enthusiasm about how the indoor season has progressed, but knows that now is the time to step up everyone’s performances.

“We need to get some qualifiers, automatic and provisional and I think we’ll do that on both sides,” Ihmels said.  “We’ve trained really hard. I feel like we are progressing as a team, it’s another step up in competition to see as a team where we are at, hopefully we can get some things accomplished and we can have some confidence going into the conference meet.”

A strong performance is expected from sophomore Laishema Hampton, who has won the women’s weight throw in her last three events.

“I’m expecting myself to do well, I’m excited about all the competition that’s coming out, even the post-collegiate athletes coming out so I think it’s going to be really nice to watch too,” Hampton said.

The entire women’s throwing squad has shown remarkable results in the four indoor meets leading up to this weekend’s ISU Classic under first-year coach Grant Wall.

Wall echoed Ihmels’ expectations for this weekend for his throwers.

“I think we are in a position for that, the indoor marks compared to the outdoor regional marks the indoor marks are pretty intense,” Wall said. “If we hit it right, I think we can get two or three (provisional qualifiers) for the women.”

The ISU Classic comes before a week off for the team before it hosts the Big 12 Indoor Track Championships beginning Feb. 26.

Big 12 teams such as Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Oklahoma will travel to Ames this weekend as well to use the ISU Classic for a tuneup before they give all-out performances at the Big 12 Championships.

Sophomore sprinter Kianna Elahi recognized that with all the Big 12 competition coming in along with several other ranked teams and individually ranked athletes, this weekend would be different from the rest so far.

“It [the competition] is probably what I’m looking forward to most, I feel like I’ve been running on pace to where I should be,” Elahi said.

The step up in competition provides the ISU women the opportunity to measure their fitness and performance before having a week to prepare themselves for the Big 12 Championship, where the competition remains on an incredibly high level.

The ISU men’s and women’s track and field teams will put their best out on Harry Hoak Track inside Lied Recreational Athletic Center this weekend against some of the country’s premier competition.

The ISU Classic begins 12:30 p.m. Thursday with heptathlon and pentathlon competition. It will continue through Saturday.