Cougars Head to Air Force to Face Conference Foes

ROVO -- After an impressive opening invitational held on home turf, BYU will head to Colorado Springs this weekend for the Air Force Invitational to compete against almost every top Mountain West Conference contender.

Taking the track and field this Friday and Saturday along with the Cougars will be Colorado State, top ranked Colorado, New Mexico, Utah State, Wichita State and Wyoming in Division I competition.

"This meet will really be a pre-conference meet for us," men's head coach Mark Robison said. "We will be able to see what the competition is for the conference and how we match up right now."

The teams will be in full force this weekend minus the distance squad from the No. 10 women's team who will continue to take time off after their second place finish at the 2003 Cross Country Nationals.

"I set no goals as to our team performance," women's head coach Craig Poole said. "Each athlete has their own individual goals that we are working for. This meet we will be working on improving our technique."

Several athletes will work toward reaching NCAA provisional qualifying marks and last weeks top performers freshman thrower Nic Arrhenius and sophomore high jumper Lindsey Metcalf will look to hit automatic NCAA marks after reaching provisional measures last week.

"Overall, this is another good opportunity for good competition," Poole said. "We are all healthy and that alone says a lot about how we expect to perform."