The Arizona men’s and women’s track teams hit the road again this weekend in search of more NCAA qualification marks at the Iowa State Classic Invitational in Ames, Iowa.

UA head track coach Fred Harvey said the team has had its collective eye on this meet for some time because it’s right before the most important part of the Wildcats’ season.

Because it’s a two-day meet – as opposed to the one-day meets that dotted the Wildcats’ earlier schedule – this will be the start of a month and half routine and allow the team to “”get that physical and mental preparation that you need for that type of situation,”” Harvey said.

Two weeks from this weekend Arizona will head to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Washington and two weeks after that is the NCAA Championship in College Station, Texas.

“”This is a meet that we’ve really been gearing for, it’s a great facility to run at and the competition level is going to be very, very tough this weekend,”” Harvey said.

The meet starts today at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time and UA throwers Megan Howard and Taylor Freeman will take center stage.

Howard, a senior, has already won the weight throw event three times this year but Harvey is looking for Freeman to step up this weekend.

“”We’d really like to see our freshman Taylor Freeman get a (personal record),’ Harvey said of the Iowa City native.

In fact, Harvey said he’s expecting similar results from every Arizona athlete competing in Ames.

“”We just had our team meeting and the thing I addressed to them is; No. 1 every person here we’re looking to have a PR,”” Harvey said Thursday night in a phone interview. “”That’s our No. 1 thing that I wanted to challenge them with, and then No. 2 is to accumulate as many top-5 NCAA performances as we possibly can.””

The Wildcats have racked up multiple NCAA qualification marks in every meet this season, but Harvey said if they can improve on those marks it would only make an already strong team even stronger.

“”When you have athletes who are hovering around that top-5 performance,”” the head coach said, “”you know that they have a great opportunity of getting to the national championship and being able to score and it gives them just that much more confidence going in.””