As springtime arrives, the ISU men’s track and field team will head outdoors to begin the second half of the season. The Cyclones officially kick off the outdoor season Friday and Saturday at the Missouri Relays.

Coach Corey Ihmels said the Missouri Relays provides the team with a good opportunity to get the second half started.

“It’s a chance to get outdoors, get a meet in, get our feet wet and get ready to roll,” Ihmels said.

The outdoor season ushers in several changes from the indoor season. An obvious difference is that the track is larger outdoors, giving runners more space to run in. Most outdoor tracks are 400 meters long, compared to the Lied Recreation Athletic Center’s 300-meter track.

“The 200 indoors is a lap [on some tracks]. Outdoors, it’s just a curve and a straight,” said junior sprinter Jared Lewis.

Sprints coach Ronnie Williams said the way the team runs each race changes with the move from the tighter indoor track.

“Indoors is more about positioning,” Williams said. “Outdoors, it’s more equal.”

Another difference between the two seasons is that more events are added to the outdoor lineup – replacing several events from the indoor season. Field events, such as the hammer, discus and javelin replace the weight throw, and the 3,000-meter steeplechase is added to the running events. Some of the running and hurdling events are held at different distances, including the 60-meter run being extended to 100 meters.

Though there is a transition between outdoors and indoors, Ihmels said the team approaches training in the same way.

“I don’t think anything changes,” he said. “I think we’ve always had in mind, even when we were training indoors, that we have to be aware we need to keep going into June and July.”

Ihmels said his goal for the runners in his first season as head coach is to see them continue to come closer as a group.

“The longer we are able to be together as a group, I think the better we will become,” he said.

The young ISU track team heads into the outdoor season after seeing several positives in the indoor season. Newcomers James Galvan and Hillary Bor made a splash with impressive races earlier this year.

Galvan set an ISU record in the 800 and was the only competitor for the men’s team at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Bor, a freshman from Kapsabet, Kenya, was impressive toward the end of the indoor season – setting a personal best and NCAA provisional qualifying time in the mile. Both runners will get the chance to build off their early season success in the second half.

After a slow start in the indoor season, Lewis wants to regain his momentum from last season.

“I definitely feel like I struggled this indoor season, but I think the expectation hasn’t lowered,” Lewis said. “I’m taking it one race at a time. All it takes is one to get back on track.”

In 2007, the Colorado native was a regional qualifier in the 100-meter dash, setting a career best of 10.41 seconds.

Ronnie Williams agrees that Lewis will return to form in the second half.

“He ran OK indoors, but outdoors I think he’s going to be a monster,” he said.

The Cyclones will be on the road for the remainder of the season, with meets being held as far away as California and Oregon. However, the Drake Relays and the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines allow the team to compete closer to home toward the end of the season.

The Cyclones will send the majority of their athletes to compete in Missouri. Several of the distance runners, including Kiel Uhl and Guor Majak, won’t compete this weekend because they will be running in the Stanford Invitational next week.