Ball State track and field is traveling to Ypsilanti, Michigan, for the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday.

The Cardinals will go up against 11 other teams this weekend to try and better their standing of 11th place last year.

Ball State has competed against one of their opponents, Western Michigan, twice this season — Jan. 7 and last weekend at the Ball State Tune-Up. The Cardinals have fallen short both times.

Head coach Brian Etelman is going into this meet a lot more confident than he was last year. He said if the Cardinals do their job this weekend and get the projected scores they need and Western Michigan makes one mistake, they will win.

“We are going to be so much better this weekend than we have been probably in any point of the past five or six years indoors or outdoors,” Etelman said.

Last week at the Ball State Tune-Up, freshman Breyana Byrdsong placed second in the 200-meter race. She was ahead of the MAC defending champion and Western Michigan senior Sarita Dotson until the last 20 meters.

“I didn’t know that she was the defending champion going into the meet last week," Byrdsong said. "But now that I know that, I feel like I can compete with anybody in the MAC now."

Byrdsong is going into the MAC Indoor Championship for the first time in her college career. But sophomore Peyton Stewart already has a year of the MAC Indoor Championship under her belt.

Last year, Stewart placed fourth overall in the 60-meter dash. She said she surprised herself a little in the final last year by scoring so well as a freshman. She said she is not nervous at all going into it. Stewart also got her personal record this season and she said it boosts her confidence.

“I feel confident for this weekend, but it is just another meet,” Stewart said.

The MAC Indoor Championship starts at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Eastern Michigan’s Bowen Field House. The meet will start back up again at 10 a.m. Saturday.

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