Team tuning-up for Big Ten meet

Starting this Saturday, the No. 14 men's track and field team hosts the Hoosier Hills meet as a tune-up for the conference meet, which takes place March 1 and 2 in Champaign, Ill. Teams from across the country will travel to Gladstein Fieldhouse for the meet, which starts at noon. As the team will work to beat the competition, the focus will be on the Big Ten Championship.\n"We're going to have an awesome meet with the Big Tens, and we've got to be prepared to do as well as we possibly can," coach Marshall Goss said.\nThe men have run well in the past two weeks against national competition at the Canon IV Classic and the Indiana Invitational. Team scores were not kept, but several individuals boasted top performances.\nBefore the string of invitationals, the men competed in several dual meets, emerging 7-2. Their only two losses came in the same meet to Purdue and Ohio State, both top ranked programs. This meet marks the seventh consecutive weekend of racing for some individuals. Some team members will take the opportunity this week to recuperate before the Big Ten Championships.\n"Not a lot of the guys who are going to the Big Tens will participate this week," Goss said. "We're going to mix up our lineup quite a bit and give some young guys a chance to run."\nGoss said many of the field event athletes will compete in the meet, along with the hurdlers and some middle-distance athletes. The middle-distance runners will compete at a shorter event.\n"I'm going to use this meet as exactly what it is, preparation for Big Tens," junior thrower Mike Minton said.\nIn addition to Minton, some other athletes to watch this weekend are senior jumper Hasaan Reddick, senior hurdler Matt Harris and sophomore jumper Noah Shelton. Goss said he hopes the meet adds momentum for the athletes heading into the Big Ten Championship. The athletes should gain either confidence or rest heading into the meet.\n"It's like a springboard," Goss said. "That springboard might be not running, or it might be running a different event or just running one event."\nThe team needs as much momentum as it can get heading into the conference meet. The Big Ten is looking strong with five teams in the top 15. Goss said there is no real favorite heading into the meet.\n"We're going to be hunting for everything we can get," Goss said. "The thing is that our kids' attitude toward competition has been very good."\nThe Hoosier Hills meet will be at Gladstein Fieldhouse with an admission of $4 for adults and no charge for IU students.