Iowa State’s men’s and women’s track and field teams are preparing to host several squads from around the nation at the Lied Recreation Center this weekend.

Teams that will be represented at the Iowa State Classic are Florida, Auburn, Arizona State, Michigan State, Iowa, Texas A & M and Missouri.

“This meet is probably the top [indoor] meet in the nation, period,” said men’s coach Steve Lynn.

The reason the ISU Classic draws so many teams and performers is because Lied is the “best eight lane indoor track in the world,” said women’s sprints and hurdles coach Scott Roberts.

Because there are only Division I teams, there will be better competition, Roberts said.

The runners will be trying to qualify their times for nationals.

Qualifying can be done in one of two ways.

The NCAA sets an automatic standard, and if an individual meets this, they are qualified automatically.

The standard is “very, very steep,” said Dick Lee, women’s track head coach.

There is also a provisional standard.

After the NCAA has taken the automatic qualifiers, it goes down the provisional list in descending order and fill out the spots for nationals.

“They’ll only take so many for each event,” Lee said.

The Cyclones will look to qualify individuals and teams following strong performances from last Saturday’s meet, the Carle/Health Alliance Illini Classic in Illinois.

ISU All-American Jamie Beyer, who took second place in the shot put and weight throw hopes to improve his performance. Beyer’s throws so far this year would have him qualified provisionally for nationals, but he wants to do better.

“The throws that I’ve had this year are pretty close to how far I threw them last year, but I want to throw farther,” Beyer said, “I hope to automatically qualify.”

Beyer said he hasn’t thrown “up to where I feel like I can” over the past meets.

“I just want to have a good performance more than anything,” he said.

Iowa State’s Joey Brunkhorst won the high jump last weekend with a jump of 7-0.5 and is also looking forward to the competition.

“I’m pretty excited for [the meet], it is pretty big,” he said.

Competition for Brunkhorst will come from his own teammate. Damon Lampley tied for fifth last weekend.

“He’s always pushing me,” said Brunkhorst.

“Every event is going to be really strong,” Coach Steve Lynn said.

“I think the sprints and hurdles are probably the strongest they’ve ever been in this meet. They’re outstanding.”

“For us, we’re trying to get some good performances, trying to get qualified for the NCAA’s,” Lynn said.

As for the women, Lee hopes his squad can keep improving.

“We’re looking forward to this weekend. Last weekend was in some ways kind of an off week for us knowing what we had coming up,” Lee said. “We’re looking forward to some great performances.”

The women were led last weekend by first-place finishers Oluwaseun Adetiba in the 200 meter dash, Laurie Meythaler in the mile and Aurelia Trywianska in the 60 meter hurdles.

Lisa Griebel in the shot put and Trywianska were called “two good shots for winning individual events this weekend,” by Coach Lee.

Lee also said that this would be “one of the top collegiate indoor meets in the U.S.”

Meythaler said of her upcoming meet “it is definitely going to be a good race.” She also said that the meet will be “pretty competitive.”

The meet will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Lied Recreation Center.