PROVO, Utah (January 25) - The men's and women's track teams will dive headfirst into the 2000 season this weekend, as they send teams to four different invitationals in two days. The Cougars will have an opportunity to qualify for nationals while competing against some of the nation's best talent.
The women will go up against two of the nation's best teams at the Illinois Invitational this Friday. Host Illinois and Arkansas make up the rest of the field, as the Cougars will send a split squad to Urbana-Champaign on the same day another group of women and a men's team return to Pocatello to represent BYU at the Idaho State Invitational. The Illinois squad will compete in a scored meet without entries in the throws or in the pole vault. On Saturday, the men's and women's squads that competed at Idaho State will drive south to Logan to compete in the Wilson Motor Meet on the campus of Utah State University.
In addition, the men will send some athletes to the Air Force Open, a two-day event running Friday and Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo. "It's the first venture into activity for our distance runners," said men's coach Willard Hirschi. "Our men have been working very hard, and now we're just waiting for some of them to break through and demonstrate the ability we know is there."