The ISU women’s track and field team will send split squads and separate agendas to the Tiger Track Classic and Stanford Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Sprinters, hurdlers and field athletes will trek south to Auburn, Ala. in an attempt to improve upon their performances from the Baldy Castillo Invitational, which took place March 20 and 21.

Junior hurdler Kaci Storm set a personal record in the 100-meter hurdles at the Baldy Castillo Invitational and said the goal for this weekend is to set another.

“When you run a personal best you think, ‘how am I going to go faster than that or how am I going to do better than that?’” Storm said. “But then you have to sit down and reflect on the race and really decide for me being a hurdler, this hurdle was bad, hurdles one and three were bad, and analyze it and really sit down and focus on exactly what you need to do for next time.”

After missing the entire indoor season due to injury, redshirt senior thrower Kayla Sanborn will compete in her second meet of the outdoor season alongside Storm at the Tiger Track Classic.

“[My goal is] just improving on my marks from [the Baldy Castillo Invitational], especially coming off an injury right now,” Sanborn said. “I think if I can just progress each meet and then leading up to conference get to where I was last season.”

For the group competing at the Tiger Track Classic, this weekend is about improving and advancing.

Iowa State will send a group of distance runners out west to Palo Alto, Calif. to make their outdoor season debuts.

Sophomore Heidi Engelhardt is one of the distance runners making the trip to the Golden State. Engelhardt will compete in the 1,500-meter run, and said she isn’t worried too much about the time she records and is more interested in getting that first outdoor race under her belt.

“I’m almost certain I will get a [personal record] from last year, hopefully, unless I fall on my face,” Engelhardt said. “Even if something like that would happen, I’d still want to put myself in the race to the best of my abilities.”

For the young distance runners on the team, the Stanford Invitational will serve as a confidence builder and for a handful of the athletes, the meet will represent their ISU outdoor career debuts.

“You do have to have a time qualification to get into a certain meet,” Engelhardt said. “It’s just working on the confidence to be able to race people who have a lot faster [personal records] than me, and not worrying about that, but having the confidence to put myself in the race with people who are faster than me on paper.

The Stanford Invitational is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Friday. The Tiger Track Classic will start at 2 p.m. Friday.