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Improvement is all women's track coach Sue Parks is looking for from her team as it heads to the Sykes-Sabock Challenge, hosted by third-ranked Penn State in State College, Pa.
Also at the meet will be two-time defending Big Ten champion Michigan, as well as Ohio State. Mid-American Conference opponents Kent State, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan will also be participating in the meet.
"We want to continue to improve like we did last weekend," Parks said. "Hopefully we can step up to that level of competition. We're going to be running against the best in the Big Ten, but we were running against national-level teams last week."
The Cardinals showed significant progress last week at the Meyo Invitational in Notre Dame, where they set 11 personal-best marks.
Highlighting the meet was a first-place performance by sophomore Jill Scully in the 5,000-meter run at 17:16.81.
In the high jump, junior Ashley Gillies tied for second place, with a jump of 5-6. Sophomore Kristina Hervey and junior Ashlie Coleman tied for 10th with leaps of 5-4 14.
"I felt I did pretty good overall. It was really good competition," Hervey said. "Just being in that atmosphere was good to be a part of. There were some really good athletes from different schools."
Parks considers this the last "big" weekend for the Cards, as they have only one regular season meet after the Challenge until the MAC Championships Feb. 27. The team, currently with no significant injuries, looks to hit its peak at the MAC.
"We have a home meet next weekend, but we won't try to do too much at that meet with only a weeks rest until the MAC," Parks said.
The Challenge will be the first scored meet for the team and begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
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