Women’s track and field head coach Dick Lee expects several of the Cyclone women to challenge the best in the conference at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championship this weekend in Lincoln, Neb.

Senior Susan Sherman is the defending Big 12 champion in the women’s weight throw.

“She’ll be one of the favorites there,” Lee said. “Right now, there is very good competition. There are six kids that throw over 60 feet in the conference in the weight throw, so that will be challenging competition for her. She has a great opportunity to defend her title.”

Sherman is currently ranked first in the Big 12 in the event. Following Sherman’s conference-best throw of 62 1/4 is Amanda Riffel of Kansas State at 61-3 3/4.

This is Sherman’s last opportunity to compete in the conference indoor championships, and she said she hopes to finish at the top once more.

“I’m excited for my last indoor Big 12 Championship,” she said. “I want to end my career on a high note. Last year, there was pretty good competition, so I’m ready.”

Freshman Agata Kosuda is the school record holder in the women’s triple jump. Lee believes there will be plenty of tough competition for her, and said she has the ability to finish in the top five in the triple jump.

Lee also expects some good finishes from his runners.

Ada Anderson has the best time in the conference this year in the women’s 800-meter run at 2:06.07.

“We have an opportunity to possibly win a conference title there. If [Ada] finishes top three, that would be a great race on her part,” Lee said.

This is the final indoor meet for sprinter Sheba Clarke, who will be competing in the 60-meter dash.

“I’m not concerned about placing and I’m not concerned about winning,” Clarke said. “My main goal is to get a personal record.”

Lee said Clarke will have to go against some of the best sprinters in the collegiate ranks.

“The Big 12 is competitive and one of the toughest sprint conferences in the country,” Lee said. “Two years ago, a tenth of a second separated three people, second through fifth. Not much time separates the top four or five in that race. It’s a good thing they have the fully automated timing system, because you wouldn’t want to rely on people using stopwatches to determine the places in the 60-meter dash.”

Sophomore Rebecca Williams will be competing in the 60-meter hurdles and the 1,600-meter relay. Lee said it will be challenging for Williams to place high in the hurdles.

“[Rebecca] was a scorer last year as a freshman.” Lee said. “That’s may be the toughest event in the conference. Even though she has a provisional qualifying mark in the nation, she’s still kind of on the bubble with her mark. It’ll all come down to [preliminaries] on Friday.”

Williams, like Clarke, just wants to improve her own marks.

“[My main goals are] just to run faster and PR. That’s it,” Williams said.

Williams also feels that being a year older will help her out.

“Last year, I was young. I didn’t really know where I could be in the conference,” she said. “Now I know that I can stay with them a little bit. That’s all I am trying to do, is stay in the mix more so than I did before.”

Competition begins at 9:30 a.m. Friday and ends Saturday with the 1,600-meter relay at 6:45 p.m.