The men's indoor track team will get a chance to be victorious in front of the home crowd in the second annual Ball State Open this Saturday, the only home meet of the entire indoor season. Also competing in the meet are Butler, Illinois State, University of Indianapolis, Lindenwood and IPFW.
Last year the Ball State Open was only a men's meet, but this year a women's competition has been added. The meet will begin with field events at 10 a.m. and running events at 1 p.m.
"The key to the meet is to be mentally prepared, but it's also important to be spiritually prepared," senior Victor Johnson said. "The team needs to be of one accord."
Last year, the Cardinals finished fourth at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships, their highest finish since the1996 season.
Ball State was picked by the league's head coaches to finish sixth in the MAC after losing more than half of its scorers to graduation from 2002, including Zach Riley, Bryan Troxell and B.J. McKay.
Of the 43 members on this year's team, 29 are either freshmen or sophomores, creating a substantial amount of youthful and undeveloped talent on the team.
"With this meet and much of the indoor season, it's going to be a growing and learning experience," fourth-year head coach Jim Sprecher said. "We have good team balance, but we are young in a lot of events."
Sprecher will be relying mostly on the upperclassmen such as Scott Allen (sprints), Matt Denmark (high jump), Deighton Jarrett (jumps), Paul Panning (pole vault) and Brian Runyon (distance) to lead the team to victory as well as set an example for the younger members.
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