Having focused on personal marks in their previous meet, members of the men's track and field team are now concentrating on the competition Friday at the Notre Dame Triangular.
The team will go up against the host Irish and Mid-American Conference foe Western Michigan.
"The guys know this will be a weekend where marks don't matter, but moving up a spot will be important," coach Jermaine Jones said. "This weekend, the bottom line is getting the highest place possible. We want to win."
The team is coming off a successful showing at the Purdue Open, where sophomore Matt Filer took first place in the triple jump. Ball State placed second in 10 other events.
As the team headed into the Purdue Open, Jones expected the throwers to have a strong impact and felt them to be one of the stronger aspects of the team.
However, their performance at the Open was not up to standard -- they finished eighth in the weight throw and fourth in the shot put.
Freshman Zac Dommer and sophomore Jeremy Gillingham both committed fouls and were disqualified from the weight throw, while junior Dan Niksch took eighth.
"I was just uncomfortable, even doing warm-ups," Gillingham said. "I just had a bad day, and it wasn't clicking."
Dommer and Gillingham placed fourth and eighth, respectively, in the shot put with throws of 50-1 34 and 42-10 14.
"Western Michigan has a strong throwing team, so our throwers are going to have to step up this week," Jones said.
Notre Dame's strength lies in distance, meaning Ball State will have to control the sprinting events to make up points where the Broncos and Irish lack.
"It'll come down to the 4x400 relay, and I'm confident that any four people that I put out there are going to be competitive,"
At the Open, the 4x400 relay team took first place with a time of 3:24.96. Jones will toggle with that lineup as the season progresses, looking for the right combination.
"One thing I really push is confidence," Jones said. "I feel like we can compete with anyone on our schedule. We have just as good a shot as Western Michigan or Notre Dame at winning this meet; we just have to put our best foot forward."
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