Track and field gets its outdoor portion of the schedule rolling as it travels to Edwardsville for the Cougar Classic Saturday.

The meet will be hosted by SIU Edwardsville, which had some team and individual success during indoor, including an 11th-place finish and All-American recognition at the NCAA Indoor Nationals for junior triple jumper Jatavia Wright.

NIU did not have anyone compete at Indoor Nationals held on March 15 in Albuquerque, N.M., but did make individual splashes at MAC Indoor Championships when it placed 10th out of 12 on March 1 in Kent, Ohio.

The Huskies totaled 37 points, which is the second-highest indoor MAC total they have had in program history.

During the MAC Championships the Huskies set four NIU records and had three top-five finishes. One standout performer was junior Latesha Bigby, who not only set the NIU record for heptathlon scoring at 3,236 points, but also earned All-Conference honors with her third-out-of-20 place time of 8.50 in the 60-meter hurdles.

NIU looks to build off the success it has had this season.

“Although the girls went home for spring break they had workouts that they completed,” said head coach Connie Teaberry. “Coming back off of that you can tell that from indoor to outdoor they are really hungry.

“The ladies are looking really good. We are adding the discus, the javelin and the 400 hurdles for outdoor; all of those girls are in scoring potential. So, it’s a matter of the weather breaking and us being able to get outside and really be able to work those events and continue to work those events that we had indoors.”

For the first time since 2011, NIU will not compete in a warm weather state for the first outdoor meet following the MAC Indoor Championships.

“It may be a factor as far as technique for some of the ladies,” Teaberry said. “Four-hundred-meter hurdles athletes haven’t really been able to practice them from the blocks on the 400-meter track yet just because we still had snow on the track, so we’ll see some areas that we’ll really need to fine tune, but that’s just going to come with being able to get outside on the track. As far as the girls’ mindsets and the focus that they’ve put into their events, I think mentally we’re ready to go, but we’ve got to be able to practice those events, and that will come with the weather.”