It’s not every day a team gets the opportunity to compete on a brand-new track.

The ISU women’s track team will get the chance to do exactly that when it travels to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to compete in the John McDonnell Invitational. The brand-new facility will also host the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2008.

The meet will provide the Cyclones with a strong test and high-quality competition, all coming a week before one of the biggest and strongest meets of the year: the Drake Relays.

This is one of the first weekends of the outdoor season that the team will not have a split squad going to two different meets, as the whole team will make the flight with the exception of the longer-distance

runners, who will be taking the weekend off.

“We have pretty much everyone on the team competing,” head coach Dick Lee said. “Except for the longer distance kids. We are racing everything through the 1,500 and most of our jumpers are going down

minus Agata Kosuda, who is taking the week off before Drake.”

The Cyclones should expect to see a very strong field including the host Razorbacks, who placed third last year in the 4×400-meter relay and placed 25th in the nation as a team.

“It’s a very competitive meet,” sprint coach Scott Roberts said. “Anytime Arkansas is in a meet it’s going to be a competitive meet. They are always very tough in the sprints and hurdles, so it should be

a good test for us.”

The tough competition should bring out the best in the Cyclones, who are looking to continue their momentum from a very strong performance at the Jim Duncan Invitational last weekend.

The Cyclones brought home four individual titles from the meet in Des Moines, marking one of their strongest performances of the year.

Several Cyclones will also look to hit a regional qualification, which will get them one step closer to making the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento in June.