The men’s indoor track team will get one more chance to tune-up for the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships in a home meet Friday night.

“It will be good to get out there and compete,” head coach Tom Akers said. “We’ve had a chance to practice on our new track, but not compete.”

The renovated Lantz Fieldhouse has been available for practice the past three weeks but has yet to host a meet. Akers said it will be good to hold a meet there before next week when Lantz will host the OVC Indoor Championship.

“We’ll get a chance to see how smooth a meet runs there,” Akers said. “Especially with the new scoreboard.”

Another concern for Akers is the pole vault and throwing events, which will be moved inside the track for meets. In practice, the throwers and vaulters train on the outside of the track.

“Friday will be the final chance to smooth out any track management issues that may occur,” Akers said.

On Friday, Illinois State University, the University of Illinois, Butler University and Bradley University will be the Division I schools sending partial teams to Charleston for the Friday Night Special meet. McKendree College, Millikin University, Lincoln College and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology will also be attending.

The meet probably won’t be competitive for team scoring, Akers said. But it should provide good matchups in each event.

“We’re looking for some good individual performances,” Akers said. “Our runners need to get use to the track in meets.”

All eyes will be on Jason Bialka, who last week qualified provisionally for the NCAA championships in the 3,000-meter run. On Friday, Bialka will try to qualify in the mile. Jarrod Macklin should compete after being held out last week due to a minor hamstring strain.

“Our guys are excited to finally compete at our home track,” Akers said. “But now it’s time for us to focus and mentally prepare for the OVC Championships.”