The men’s track team shifts gears this weekend, as a handful of athletes try to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 9 and 10.

A week after finishing 10th in the Big 12 Indoor Championships, the focus now turns to the last chance NCAA Qualifier meet at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center on Saturday.

Brandon Rooney will compete in the mile after taking fourth last weekend. Rooney’s career best time came Feb. 10 at the Iowa State Classic, when he ran a time of 4 minutes, 4.04 seconds. The provisional qualifying time is 4:04, but in order to make the NCAA meet, Rooney would have to run somewhere around a 4:01.5 to place high enough in the nation. Rooney injured his knee while warming up during the Big 12 meet, and feels his health is the key to a good performance.

“I definitely feel like I’m good enough,” Rooney said. “I think I’m fit enough, it’s just a matter of getting healthy for the weekend and getting a good solid workout in before then. I haven’t really put a lot of thought into [NCAAs], I’m just trying to get healthy.”

Assistant coach Corey Ihmels said improving Rooney’s personal best by two or three seconds would not be an impossible task, but is more confident about Rooney’s chances in the future.

“I think he’s got a chance,” Ihmels said. “He’s maybe a year away from getting there, but he’s definitely made leaps and bounds from where he was a year ago.”

Jared Lewis will have a busy weekend, running two events in which he has a potential to qualify. Lewis took second in the Big 12 meet with a 6.75 second run in the 60-meter dash, but would have to improve that time by about a tenth of a second to have a chance.

“Two weeks ago we would have said there’s no way he’s going to make it in the 60, but he’s got a chance,” said coach Steve Lynn. “I think he’s got a chance to really establish himself.”

Lewis also joins Gabe Kimpson, Elijah Braimah and Jared Graham as part of the 4×400-meter relay team that currently sits in 11th place in the nation, which would likely be good enough to qualify. Lynn, however, said a number of teams will be trying to knock them off.

“This is really the prelims here for the NCAA’s in the 4×4, because at least eight of the top 15 teams in the country are coming here to run,” Lynn said. “You finish in the top four here and you’re going to go to nationals.”

Others with a chance to qualify for the Cyclones include Julian Morris in the high jump, and Kellen Burl in the 60-meter hurdles.

One athlete who will not have a chance to compete is Neil Hines, who is currently 17th in the nation in the heptathlon, which is right on the bubble for qualifying for the NCAA meet. The meet does not feature a heptathlon, so Hines has nothing to do but wait to see if he will make it.

“It’s iffy right now, there would probably need to be one scratch,” Lynn said. “I’d love to see him get in because there’ll be a lot of people that go there and then not do as well as they did getting there, and he will improve and get a shot at really doing well.”

The rest of the team will focus on preparing for the outdoor season, which starts March 15 at the Emporia State Spring Twilight, in Emporia, Kan.