The Salukis will host their first scored meet of 2014 this Friday and Saturday with one thrower already setting his sights on a national bid.

Sophomore Josh Freeman said at the end of every track season the top throwers in the nation get invited to the national tournament in June and he is looking to get his mark out of the way earlier rather than later.

Freeman said he is shooting for a shot put throw close to 19.25 meters because that could get him into the national tournament.

“One of my biggest goals is to try and get a mark that will qualify me for nationals,” Freeman said. “I’ve been talking to my coach and he thinks it will be somewhere between 19 meters and 19.25 (meters), which is roughly 62 and a half feet, almost 63.”

Freeman said another goal he has this season is to help the team out more with weight throwing since shot put has been his main event. He said he expects the team will do well overall at the Saluki Open as long as everyone comes ready to compete.

Coach Connie Price-Smith said the meet would set the tone for the rest of the season and she thinks everyone will be where they left off in December.

Price-Smith said the Salukis will have to compete against some Division I schools including Belmont University, Austin Peay State University and Southeast Missouri State University.

“With Belmont competing, just them alone will be a great meet for us to compete with them,” Price-Smith said. “They usually have a lot of good athletes both on the track and in the field, so I think it will be an exciting competition.”

Most of the cross-country runners did not run at the last track and field meet since they were coming off a conference title for both the Saluki men and women and were resting up for the spring season.

Cross-country coach Matt Sparks said the majority of them will run this meet, with the exception of a few of them getting over some minor injuries.

“For the most part, everybody who is healthy will be running, 90 percent of the cross-country kids will be out there competing,” Sparks said. “A couple kids are still banged up.”

Those athletes include juniors Kelley Gallagher and Kristen Levi, who Sparks said were the top two girls during the cross-country season. Sparks said his main focus is the bigger tournaments later in the season and he wants to make sure everyone is healthy for those.

Sparks said it might be challenging getting back into competition and he is using this meet to get back into the swing of things and help figure out who is going to travel to bigger meets.

“Maybe they do have a bigger challenge, but it’s not of a concern to the program, because the bigger concern is the end of February,” Sparks said. “This meet is just a tune-up meet for the later season meets that are going to be more competitive.”

The Salukis can be seen in action throughout the day Friday and Saturday at the Student Recreational Center.