Arizona’s track and field team will send two of its athletes to Palo Alto, Calif., to compete in the Pacific 10 Conference Multi-Events this weekend.

Decathlete Jake Arnold and heptathlete Shevell Quinley will represent the team Saturday and Sunday.

Arnold, a senior, said he’s confident he will be able to defend his 2006 Pac-10 decathlon championship.

“”No offense to other guys, but the closest guy to me is 700 points behind me,”” said Arnold, who currently holds the highest decathlon score in the nation with his personal-best score of 7,946.

Stanford’s Josh Hustedt holds the second-best score in the Pac-10, with 7,286 points.

ASU’s Josh Kinnaman is normally Arnold’s toughest competitor within the Pac-10, but Arnold said that Kinnaman will not be at full strength this weekend because of a sore hamstring.

Although one of Arnold’s goals for his final collegiate season is to break the 8,000-point mark, if not the school record of 8,075 points, he said he might not go after that score until the NCAA Championships June 6-9.

“”We’re gonna see how the first day is going. We might just save some of that energy for the following weekend,”” Arnold said. “”Most likely I feel we’re gonna have a good day, and we are gonna go for that 8,000(-point mark) and the school record.””

Quinley, a sophomore, will compete in the heptathlon this weekend. She has already automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with her personal-best score of 5,532.

“”I’ve grown and matured a lot, not just as an athlete but as a competitor,”” said Quinley, who finished fourth in the Pac-10 Championships as a freshman in 2006. “”So if I go in with a competitive mindset, like I did at (the March 29-30 Louisiana State Multis), I expect myself to (finish) top-three.””