While the name of the meet implies importance, the Big 4 Duals sits on a smaller scale of what lies ahead for the ISU women’s track and field team.

With a chance to be crowned king of the hill in the state of Iowa, the focus of Iowa State will be to use the meet more as a training opportunity.

But that doesn’t mean the Cyclones won’t attempt to take first place at the event. In last year’s event, both Iowa and Northern Iowa outscored the women’s team, but Iowa State defeated Drake in head-to-head scoring.

“Not that we’re not focused on this weekend, we definitely are,” said redshirt senior Hannah Willms. “We obviously want to prove that we’re the best school in Iowa. But our outlook is on Big 12’s like it always is.”

Lied Recreational Center will host the dual meet that includes Iowa, Northern Iowa, Drake and Iowa State. It will be Iowa State’s first home track and field meet of the season.

“Our big thing is taking care of the little things each day, even those little things in competition and just getting ready mentally and in competition mode is the biggest thing for us,” Willms said.

Willms said this year’s squad is very team focused. In order to create a strong team dynamic, she said it is important that every member of the team is dedicated to working hard. So far, she believes everyone has done their part in putting in the time at practice and doing the little things like getting enough sleep and eating healthy.

Heading into just the second meet of this young 2015 track and field season, the goals of the team remain at the end year.

What is going to take to reach those goals?

“Just buying into what our coach says, being at practice on time, doing everything exactly the way it is and not taking any short cuts,” said redshirt freshman Katie Reeves.

The Big 4 Duals is an all-day event that will begin at 12 p.m. Jan. 24 at Lied Recreational Center. It is the first of three events that Iowa State will host during this year’s indoor season. The other two events include the Iowa State Classic on Feb. 13 to 14 and the Big 12 Indoor Championship on Feb. 27 to 28.

“With it being the beginning of the year, it’s still more technique based,” Reeves said. “For high jumpers specifically, we’re still working more on perfecting our approach, which is obviously going to help us jump higher.”