The ISU men’s track team hits the road Saturday hoping to build momentum for its bigger home meets next month.

The Cyclones compete in the Adidas Track Classic against other Big 12 teams, including host Nebraska and Oklahoma, as well as Drake, Minnesota, Colorado State and Wichita State. After opening the season last weekend at home, the team looks to build its confidence in its first road meet.

“We’re running on a different sized track, so it’s always an adjustment when you do that,” said coach Steve Lynn. “I’m anxious to see how guys respond to the changes, because our next meets are all at home.”

Another obstacle the Cyclones face is recovering from their first meet.

“We had a lot of people really sore after the meet,” Lynn said. “That’s normal, but you hope that they can get back to being 100 percent by the time this weekend rolls around. That remains to be seen.”

Nonetheless, many athletes hope to improve on last weekend. Jared Graham, who won the 600-meter run and ran the anchor leg on the winning 4×300 relay team at the ISU Open, will compete in both events this weekend and expects similar results.

“Hopefully I can get a win in each one,” Graham said. “It’ll be a good step towards the Big 12 meet, to get another 600. Hopefully I can get a better time, and that will translate to points in the Big 12 [meet].”

Another Cyclone hoping to improve is junior Zac Brouillette, who won last weekend’s shot put, competing unattached in his first collegiate track meet. Brouillette, who also plays football, will have a chance to face tougher competition, for which he will need a better throw than the 50-foot-6 3/4-inch throw he had last weekend.

“Obviously there’s a huge step up in competition,” Lynn said. “I want to see how he responds when he’s going against guys throwing 56 or 57 feet – if he backs off or if he says, ‘OK, I’m going to try to get out there with those guys.'”

Distance runners took four of the top five spots for Iowa State in the 3,000 last weekend but will focus instead on the mile run Saturday.

“We’re coming out of a strange phase,” said assistant coach Corey Ihmels. “We’re going to move forward this week, have another competitive effort, and just kind of setting ourselves up with our training and some of the bigger meets at the end of the year.”

While the meet is a building block for the rest of the indoor season, Lynn warns that the Cyclones won’t be backing down.

“It’s not the end-all meet, but you really want to compete hard every time you get a chance to go against conference schools like that,” Lynn said.