One season down, one to go.

A unique aspect of collegiate track and field is the separate seasons back to back. Indoor track ended March 10 with the National Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., and the outdoor season begins this week for the ISU men’s track team at the Walt Disney Invitational in Orlando, Fla. The adjustment to moving outdoors isn’t as big as it sounds, said coach Steve Lynn.

“Everybody’s competed outdoors before, so it’s not something totally new to them,” he said. “It usually takes us a couple meets to feel at home.”

One of the highlights of the 2006 outdoor season came at the Drake Relays when the shuttle hurdle relay team of Eric Parker, Sterling Frison, Kellen Burl and R.J. Sumrall took the Cyclones’ only Relays win. Sumrall is not on the team this year, but the other three will be joined by a new runner to take the event to multiple meets this year, including this weekend. The school record time in the relay is 56.18 seconds, a mark Parker believes they can top this year.

“The three returning from last year, minus RJ, we’ve improved quite a bit from where we were last year, and our freshmen that will step up into that fourth spot, they’re running really well, and they will come along this year,” Parker said. “I don’t think it’s out of reach at all.”

As for the rest of the team, they will be hoping to build off the indoor season. The 4×400-meter relay team placed 10th in the nation at the Indoor Championships, Neil Hines reached a provisional mark in the heptathlon, and will compete in the outdoor decathlon, Brandon Rooney narrowly missed the provisional qualifying mark in the mile run, and most of the team ran season bests at the Big 12 Championships and last chance qualifying meet in Ames during the last two weeks of the season.

“We’ve always traditionally been a better outdoor team than indoor team, and we’re looking to make a lot of good strides, and hopefully make a mark down at the national meet,” Parker said.

Kiel Uhl, who took 121st at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the fall, spent most of the indoor season fighting injury. He will compete for the first time next weekend when the team travels to Stanford. Chase Madison, however, who placed ninth in the discuss throw at the 2006 outdoor championships, will redshirt this outdoor season. He has been working to come back after having surgery on his foot in the fall.

“He’s somebody that we feel could be national champion, and that’s the level that we want him to be at,” Lynn said. “In order to do that, you can’t just train for two weeks and expect to be able to do it.”

The meet in Orlando features the shorter distance runners, throwers and jumpers, as the majority of distance runners will not compete until next weekend at the Stanford Invitational.