Redbirds Head to Iowa for Larry Wieczorek Invitational

THIS WEEK
The Illinois State track & field squad travels to Iowa City, Iowa, for the annual Larry Wieczorek Invitational hosted by the University of Iowa on Jan. 23-24. Live results will be available online at hawkeyesports.com/tracklive.

MEET HISTORY
The Larry Wieczorek Invitational is named after former Hawkeye track and field coach Larry Wiezcorek. Wieczorek's time at Iowa spanned 50 years as both a student-athlete and coach. As an athlete, Wiezcorek was a six-time Big Ten champion and four-time All-American in cross country. He then transitioned into coaching and spent 30 years with the UI track and field program, leading 79  Big Ten Champions and 53 All-Americans. This will be the fourth straight season the Redbirds have competed in this meet.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Over 12 schools will be competing in Iowa City this weekend, including fellow Missouri Valley Conference members Bradley, UIC and UNI.

• UNI swept MVC weekly honors on Dec. 7. and feature talented talented athletes  in several events like the 200m, 400m, 800m, mile, jumps, pole vault and shotput.
• Bradley holds several top spots in the MVC, including in the women's 400m, the men's and women's 3000m, the men's mile and the women's 4x400m relay. UIC's Daniel Chavez leads the conference in the 5000m.
• Some other competing schools include Minnesota State, Western Illinois, Indiana Hills and Big Ten host Iowa. The Hawkeyes' roster includes several All-Americans and Big Ten Champions.

HOMECOMING FOR COACH WEST
Austin West is in his first season with the Redbird Track & Field program. This  weekend when ISU heads to Iowa City, West will be returning to the place where his collegiate career took off.

• West competed for the Iowa track and field team, earning first-team All-American honors in the combined events three times from 2022-24 and an individual Big Ten title in 2023 in the 400m hurdles.

Hear from West
"Having grown up in Iowa City and going to college there, I'm excited to be back and see a lot of my old coaches and teammates. I've known Coach Wieczorek since I was a kid, so getting to coach at a meet named after him will be a fun experience. It's a great place to compete, so I'm excited for my group to get out there, and I know they're excited for the opportunity as well."

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH JEFF BOVEE
On this weekend's competition
"With several Valley schools there and being at a really great facility, we want to take advantage of this weekend and compete well. We also want to keep our athletes healthy. There's a fine balance for the coaches to ramp it up a little bit but do it on a case-by-case basis to try and ensure we're going to be healthy in February for the main part of our indoor season."

For the latest updates on Illinois State Track & Field, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com, follow the Redbirds on X (@RedbirdTFXC) and Instagram (isuredbirdtfxc), and like the team on Facebook (Illinois State Track & Field/Cross Country).