CEDAR CITY, Utah - After splitting up for three meets over the weekend, the Thunderbird track and field team has just one event on the scheduled this Saturday as the team will travel to California for the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational.

Members of the distance team are coming off big performances last weekend at the San Francisco Distance Carnival, as the team saw several athletes post personal records and Big Sky qualifying marks.

Ibrahim Ahmed, who ran a new personal best in the last meet, said the arena and other runners helped push the team along in San Francisco

“I think it had a lot to do with the atmosphere,” he said. “It was an atmosphere conducive to running fast, we had good competition, great weather in San Francisco, and we don't that many great opportunities like San Francisco and Stanford to chase fast times so everyone felt extra motivation to come out and do their best.”

Freshman Kasey Knevelbaard, who qualified for the Big Sky Championships in the 800-meter run over the weekend, said the atmosphere of the team has helped push him along this season.

“In high school I was doing all my training on my own, I didn't really have anyone at my level,” he said. “I was at a small school so I didn't really have huge competition all the time, but you come up to college and it's obviously a huge step up from high school … having such a competitive team atmosphere just raises the bar and the standards, brings the best out of you, and that's been huge for me.”

Ahmed said even though they are hoping to get a lot accomplished this weekend, the team has their eye on the Mt. Sac Relays coming up in a few weeks.

“It's a world class field that's assembled at Mt. Sac,” he said.