After two weekends of bad weather, the ISU men’s track team knows it can’t afford another one as it heads to the John Jacobs Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Norman, Okla., and the Jim Duncan Invitational on Saturday in Des Moines.

The short distance runners, as well as the throwers and jumpers, were affected by rain at the Missouri Relays and Texas Relays the past two weekends, while the distance runners had the Mark Messersmith Invitational canceled because of cold weather last weekend. Coach Steve Lynn said he felt the team would be prepared but is still behind in experience because of the weather.

“What we’re behind on is having an opportunity to run some different races that help prepare you for the big races later on,” Lynn said. “We need the experience of competing against different people and have the opportunity to go both below and above the [distance] that you actually race.”

Brandon Rooney and Richard Newton, two athletes who will compete in shorter distances, who will be in the 800-meter run at Oklahoma. Both ran the 1,500 in their first outdoor event of the season at the Stanford Invitational on March 30.

Newton, a sophomore from Preston, England, redshirted the indoor season while recovering from injury but feels he has the potential to hit a regional qualifying time outdoors, beginning with a good race this weekend.

“I’d really like to qualify for regionals, so I’ve just to got to focus my times to get faster,” Newton said. “I just need to make sure I’m not missing any more training. My finishes are coming back already, so hopefully, it will translate to races.”

Newton and Rooney are roommates, and have been running the same races during the outdoor season. Newton said the partnership has helped both become better on the track.

“We both help each other when one person is off pace or not feeling so good,” he said. “We’re always pushing each other on. We’ve both got the same goals, we both are chasing the same thing.”

The roommates, however, like to leave bragging rights on the line.

“We definitely talk our smack in just about anything. We definitely will throw some words around for the fun of it,” Rooney said. “We’re competitors. We know how to get under each other’s skin.”

Elsewhere for the Cyclones, the rest of the distance runners will run at Oklahoma, with most of them running races different than what they ran at Stanford.

The rest of the team will compete in Des Moines. Lynn said he thought a number of athletes had a shot at hitting regional qualifying times, including Julian Morris in the high jump, Kellen Burl in the 60-meter hurdles, Jared Lewis in the 200-meter dash and the members of the 400-meter relay team, who will be running individual 400-meter races.

As for missing meets because of weather, Lynn said he expects the team’s training to pay off.

“There’s no question it does hurt,” Lynn said. “We’re still training really well, so I expect to have some good performances as we go along.”