Meet offers experience; Big Ten's approach

This Friday and Saturday in the Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse, the IU men's track and field team will host eleven other schools. The Indiana Relays feature opponents from several different conferences, such as Conference USA, MAC, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, Southern, and Sun Belt Conference. Some of the notable teams attending are Ball State, Cincinnati and Indiana State.\nThe key in this meet will be to continue building towards the Big Ten Indoor Championship. The meet gives numerous athletes a chance to prepare for the important upcoming meets.\n"This meet will probably determine a lot a of things going through our heads as we go into Penn State," junior hurdler Matt Harris said. "Coach has backed off training this past week, and we are getting into our fresh phase of the season, so we can go out and attack."\nFor some, the meet will offer an opportunity to get experience at the college level. \n"I think this (experience) will help them out a lot," head coach Marshall Goss said. "That is why we schedule the meet because some athletes are in a more developing stage right now and it will test what they have done in the past lessons."\nA few of the athletes who ran last weekend in Indianapolis will be held out of this meet to help prepare them for the Penn State meet and the conference championship. Among those include senior Josh Trisler, junior Bart Phariss, and sophomores Chad Andrews and Chris Powers. The jumpers will also be limited to one event.\n"We could throw together a team that can beat all these teams but the thing is, we are trying to get better for next week, Big Ten's, and national's," head coach Goss said.\nWith that in mind Powers believes that his teammates running this week are capable of doing well against the competition. \n"I am looking forward to seeing the other athletes run and trying to win every event they enter." Powers said. \nA meet similar to this one, in which the competition is not as fierce as the previous or upcoming meets, might be difficult for some athletes to get up for. Harris does not see that problem with this team. \n"I don't think it is really difficult for our team to get up for any meet this season. As long as we know our goals and try to get there," Harris said. "The same expectations are always in every meet, go out and compete and put up a good time"