The Arizona track and field team is heading to Northern Arizona University for the Lumberjack Invitational Saturday, the first indoor meet of the 2010 season.

Head coach Fred Harvey said that Saturday’s meet should be a good season opener, but during a relatively short indoor season, every meet counts.

“”For us, we don’t have time to build into it,”” Harvey said. “”We have to get there — we have to hit it hard since we have very limited opportunities in terms of our indoor performances. I feel confident that the people that we’re taking to this meet are going to get things done at a high level.””

Arizona will be competing against athletes from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NAU and a handful of unattached athletes. 

This will be the first competition against other schools for the Wildcats, who have been training since fall.

“”It feels good to start the season,”” said junior long jumper Stefanos Michael. 

Fifth-year senior Julie Stupp is especially excited to start the season. Stupp spent her first four years at Arizona swimming but decided to come back a fifth year to run track.

“”I’m nervous, a little bit, but I’m going to treat it like any other race,”” Stupp said. “”It’s been a while so it’s going to be fun to get back to racing.”” 

Luis Rivera-Morales, a Pacific 10 Conference champion in both the long jump and the triple jump expects to be successful in Flagstaff. He is one of two athletes to hold top-10 school marks in both events in UA history.

High jumper Liz Patterson, who won the 2008 NCAA National Championship and has two national runner-up finishes in the last two years, both in the indoor and outdoor NCAA competitions, is also expected to do well.

Patterson, a 6-foot senior, was also recently mentioned on the watch list for the Bowerman Award, given to the most outstanding NCAA track and field athlete.

Along with seniors Patterson and Rivera-Morales will be a handful of new faces. That, Harvey said, shouldn’t be an excuse.

“”A majority of our team is freshmen and sophomores,”” Harvey said. “”But we have freshmen and sophomores who can compete at Division 1 and national levels.””