Two things the Kansas track and field team have to look forward to this weekend: Tough competition and bad weather.

“I would love to have some good weather,” said junior Lauren Bonds, who will compete in the 1500-meter run. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that way on Saturday with temperatures only in the 40s and a 70 percent chance for rain at the 10th annual Missouri Relays in Columbia, Mo.

The Missouri Relays are the start of the Jayhawks’ outdoor season and the team couldn’t be more ready to compete.

“We’re looking forward to doing great things,” sophomore Keron Toussaint said. “I think we have a good team; we’re going to accomplish more than we did indoors.” Toussaint will be competing in the 800-meter run and the 4x400-meter relay.

The Jayhawks mostly remember last year’s meet for its bad weather throughout the weekend.

“The weather was horrendous and we didn’t want to put any of the athletes in jeopardy of getting injured for the rest of the season,” coach Stanley Redwine said.

In order for the Jayhawks to have a successful outdoor season, the team has been doing a lot of base training.

“We went back to base work and make sure they have a really good base to last throughout the season,” Redwine said. The team was able to train on its own over the break to get refocused and prepared for outdoor contests.

“As coaches, we evaluated the indoor season and what we need to work on to be better for the outdoor season.” Redwine said.

This season marks the return of sprinter Nickesha Anderson. It’s the Jamaica senior’s last season to compete. Anderson will compete in the 400-meter dash and the 4x400 relay. In the 2008 outdoor season, Anderson set school records in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash.

Along with Anderson, senior Charity Stowers will compete in the 4x400 relay and in the open 800-meter run. For Stowers, the challenge is going from the 600-yard run at indoor meets to the 800-meter run during the outdoor season.

“It’s a lot different,” Stowers said. “But my workouts are going to be less speed and more endurance until we get closer to conference.”

In the field events, freshman Corey Fuller will be switching from the triple jump to the long jump this weekend, but Fuller said that the two events were very similar.

“Dustin (Turner), the long jumper, he trains with us and I train with him, like everything goes hand in hand,” Fuller said.

In the pole vault, junior Jordan Scott may not compete in Columbia with the team. But the team is excited about the return of junior Ryan Hays. Hays is one of the team captains for this year’s squad. Hays redshirted from last year’s indoor season until now to work on getting his technique down.

“I think I covered a lot of stuff, learned a lot of things and had a real open mind because I had a lot of time to work on the vault and my technique ... I think it went really well,” Hays said.

— — Edited by Casey Miles