Once again, the ISU men’s and women’s track and field teams will be split up across the country, with athletes competing in Iowa and California over the weekend.

While their teammates compete on the West Coast, the sprinters will be close to home, participating in the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City on Saturday.

Last weekend, the sprinters were finally able to run in warm weather, competing in the Sun Angel Track Classic at Arizona State. Sprint coach Ronnie Williams said the team was able to capitalize on its chance to run in the desert environment.

“It was our first meet in a warm-weather climate, and I thought we really went out there and hit our stride.”

Throughout the meet, the Cyclones had a number of standout performances, including two runners who set NCAA Regional qualifying times. Derron Montgomery met the qualifying time in the 400-meter dash, and junior James Galvan’s time in the 800 met the qualifying standard as well. The team also saw juniors Eric Parker and Jared Lewis set career-best times.

The women’s team also had personal bests, with Ines Fischer in the 800, Leia Jackson in the 100 and 200, and Lashawn Wright in the 200.

The women’s team is looking for a strong performance out of Jenna Caffrey, who made her season debut two weeks ago. Caffrey finished 21st in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.12 seconds last weekend and hopes to improve upon that time going into next week’s Drake Relays.

Now that the weather has started to resemble springtime, the team will be able to practice consistently on the outdoor track. Williams said he believes being able to practice outdoors more often will help the team continue to show improvement.

“Having the ability to get outside is going to enable us to do all the work we need to do – like our relays – and do some things to have us more prepared as we move towards the second half of the season,” Williams said.

For the next several weeks, the Cyclones will face a rapid succession of meets, including the Drake Relays and the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Williams said the sprinters will be competing each weekend in order to see a larger drop in times.

“I think, as part of being a young team, we need to race a lot so we can get positive results,” Williams said. “We want to build on the Arizona trip, so we want to keep running and keep knocking our times down – and keep improving.”

Meanwhile, the throwers and distance runners will be participating in several meets scattered across Southern California this weekend.

Many of the throwers have already competed in events this week. For the men, Luke PInkelman and Zac Brouillette took first and second in the shot put at the L.A. Twilight Open, where Robbie Utterback and Pinkelman were first and second, respectively, in the discus throw. Stefan Tauber was second in the long jump.

Britta Christofferson finished second in the shot put for the women.

Throwers will also compete in the Mt. Sac Relays, the Azusa Pacific Invitational and the Long Beach Invitational. Most of the distance runners will be running at the Mt. Sac Relays and Long Beach Invitational. The Mt. Sac Relays started Thursday night, but results were not available at press time.