In an attempt to focus on the individual events, the Ball State women"s track team will head to the Hillsdale Relays in Hillsdale, Mich., this weekend rather than the prestigious Drake Relays.
'We just felt, compared to Drake, we could run some more individual events,' Parks said. 'We need to work on our individual events. We think it"s going to be a really good meet for us at this point in our season.'
BSU is four meets into its season. Its most recent event was the Pacesetter Invitational, hosted by Indiana State.
The Cards finished second, behind the host Sycamores by 78 points. However, the team was without its top two scorers, sophomores Crystal Winfrey and Jill Scully, both of whom competed in the Mt. SAC Relays in California.
'We feel like we could be competitive with Indiana State, but it wasn"t the right time to load up and win the meet,' Parks said. 'We always want to win in a scored situation, but that really wasn"t the weekend to load up our team to do that. We have to do what"s best for our particular team.'
Scully, along with junior teammate Ashley Gillies, qualified for the NCAA Regionals in last week"s action.
Scully did so in the 5,000-meter run at the Mt. SAC Relays with a 13th-place time of 16:49.17. Gillies won the high jump at the Pacesetter with a 5-8 mark.
Ball State was honored recently with a No. 20 national ranking in the United States Track Coaches Association Power Rankings. They finished above all other Indiana schools.
Continual improvement has been the focus for Parks as the team finds itself just halfway through the outdoor season.
'We just want to continue the improvement. Every week we have some good things happening in different areas and just want to be able to continue that,' Parks said.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
