After breaking three meet records during its most recent trip to Pullman, Vandal track and field will make the short drive to WSU for the Cougar Indoor meet. Friday’s events start at 2:30 p.m. and the meet will resume at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Two weeks ago, Idaho’s partial squad exceeded expectations at the WSU Open. Director of Track and Field Wayne Phipps hopes competing this weekend with nearly the whole team will improve the Vandals’ performance even more.
“It will be nice to see just about our whole team in action — looking to make some improvements on (the WSU Open),” Phipps said. “I think we did exceed some expectations (last time).”
Two straight Pullman meets have given the Vandals more time to focus on training and schoolwork. Phipps said his team enjoys travelling but benefits from high-quality meets close to home.
“It’s great having meets over (at WSU),” Phipps said. “It’s like having a home meet without having to do all the work for a home meet.”
Five teams will compete at the Cougar Indoor. The Cougars and Vandals will be joined by UCLA, Montana and WAC foe Utah State.
“The competition on this meet will be a little bit tougher than it was the weekend before so this will be a good opportunity for some of our people to get into some tougher competition to help prepare them for conference,” Phipps said.
Unlike the WSU Open, the Cougar Indoor will be a team-scored meet. The athletes will attempt to better personal records while competing as a team.
“I think this is where we’ll start to rev up our engine here with this scoring competition,” WSU coach Rick Sloan said. “It’s a little bit different atmosphere when there’s team scoring and you aren’t just performing for yourself.”
In addition to the regular Cougar Indoor, athletes will compete in separately scored men’s and women’s multi-events. The women’s pentathlon will include the 60 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 meter run all completed on the same day. The men’s heptathlon will include the 60 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60 meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000 meter run spread over the two-day meet.
“(The Cougar Indoor) is an opportunity to get a few more people competing than we competed that first weekend,” Phipps said. “Our goals are again to just keep preparing for the conference and work on things that will allow us to be our very best come conference time.”