With just two weeks until the Big Ten Championships, both the University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete this weekend in one of their last major competitions of the indoor season.

While the women’s team and most of the men’s team will be heading to Iowa State, a select group of eight distance runners will also be travelling to Washington.

Although both teams host a meet next weekend in Madison, the Iowa State and Washington meets are much more meaningful. The format of the Iowa State meet — one that is consistent with the Big Ten Championships — is one reason why it is a key opportunity for the team to compete.

“We can take advantage of the fact that this is one of the few preparations for athletes competing over multiple days,” men’s head coach Ed Nuttycomb said. “Preparing for back-to-back days is not easy at this high level.”

The athletes see this meet as not only an opportunity for personal training, but also for sizing up the competition.

Though the women’s team emphasizes the Big Ten Championships as clearly their most significant meet, women’s head coach Jim Stintzi realizes this weekend’s competitions are important as well.

“There are about five to six really fast tracks [in the country], and there are big meets at three of them this weekend,” Stintzi said. “This meet is the biggest and most competitive before Big Tens with teams from all over (the country).”

For many of the Badgers, this weekend is an opportunity to achieve marks that could qualify them for the NCAA Indoor Championships Mar. 13-14. Because the indoor season is relatively short, there are only a few chances for atheletes to try and reach NCAA qualifying standards.

One of the athletes aiming for a spot in the NCAA field is Nate Larkin in the 60-meter hurdles. He clocked a 7.93 earlier in the season, which puts him only .02 seconds away from an NCAA provisional cut of 7.91. While an automatic cut guarantees you a spot at the championships, a provisional cut is a little different.

“[The provisional time] puts you on a nationals list and then from that they pull the top 16,” Larkin said.

The distance runners going to Washington are also focused on this goal.

“[The meet] has many of the better distance runners in the country,” Nuttycomb said. “It’s the prime opportunity to qualify for (the NCAA Championships) and prepare for the championship part of the season.”

On the women’s side, Gwen Jorgensen has an automatic qualifying time in the 3,000 meters while freshmen Dorcas Akinniyi and Jessica Flax have provisional qualifying times in the pentathlon.

This doesn’t mean, though, they will necessarily compete in these events before the Big Ten Championships. Instead, this weekend, Stintzi is having Jorgensen run the 5,000 meters, while Akinniyi and Flax will compete in hurdles and long jump. Part of the reason for this is the nature of the events.

“[The pentathlon] is too hard on the body,” Stintzi said. “You get a certain number of shots at [a qualifying time], but it is counterproductive if you do it every weekend.”

Akinniyi realizes none of the meets mean as much as the Big Ten conference meet, so she is willing to work on whatever the coaches want her to focus on.

“The last couple of meets that I didn’t do pentathlons in, [the coaches] put me in long jump and we always do hurdles,” Akinniyi said. “In these meets, we do what we need to work on so it’s basically just another practice, another time to compete — there’s nothing like a race.”

Still, the woman’s team points to their performance at the Big Ten Championships as indicative of the success of their season.

“It all comes down to Big Tens — you have no record,” Stintzi said. “[At this meet], we want to make progress for each person competing individually and in relays so [we] are on target to be at our peak for Big Tens.”