The UA men’s and women’s track and field teams will look to make one last push to earn some last minute qualifications this weekend for the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

The team returns to action after a week off and will split up between two meets with the distance runners traveling to Seattle for the Husky Classic while everyone else heads to Fayetteville, Ark. for the Tyson Invitational.

The team will only be sending 15 athletes to Arkansas and 12 to Washington. The 27 athletes are the ones that Harvey feels have the best chance to get into the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 14-15.

“”We’re literally just taking the athletes that we believe are going to get into the national championship or the ones we believe will bring us big points at the conference championship,”” Harvey said.

The two meets are held at the two most important venues for the Wildcats with the meet in Seattle being host to the Pacific 10 Conference Championships. The meet in Fayetteville will hold the NCAA Indoor Championships. This will give both sets of athletes a good feel for the tracks they will be facing in the next couple weeks.

The Tyson Invitational is one of the biggest track and field events being held all year, with members from over 88 colleges competing. The average entry list for the sprinters and hurdlers was around 100 athletes, with about 50 apiece in the field events.

The large amount of competition will make it challenging for UA athletes to win their events, but Harvey hopes his athletes focus more on earning qualifications.

“”Some guys are going to need to run personal records and run the race of their lives to make a difference this week,”” Harvey said.

As far as the athletes competing in the Husky Invitational, the distance runners will be on a track they can run faster times on, a fact that Harvey admits is the reason he split the teams up this weekend.

The men’s distance runners have yet to make a splash in competition to date, a fact that Harvey said they will have to improve upon to earn more points at the conference level. This weekend will provide them the chance to become accustomed to the track and the athletes they will face in two weeks at the conference championship and see where they stand and what they will have to work on.

“”We have to find the best place in the country where it’s most conducive for our athletes to be able to qualify at the championship level, and the Tyson Invite is not the place for that for our distance runners,”” he said.