The Panthers will run against themselves Saturday at the Wisconsin Elite Invitational. Themselves and three other teams.

The Wisconsin Elite is a “non-scoring” meet. This means that participants will not be earning points towards a team score based on their performances like in the recent EIU Mega Meet.

Eastern will not try to win, because they can’t. In a “non-scoring” meet, there are no first, second, or third place teams.

“We do this primarily because it’s early in the season,” said Badgers’ women’s head coach Jim Stintzi.

He pointed out that if the meet is ran as a “non-scoring” meet, teams can run red-shirted athletes without losing their red-shirt status. This helps coaches decide whether to run injured athletes for the season.

For Eastern men’s head coach Tom Akers, in this kind of meet “we are looking for individual performances, that way you can run kids in events you want them to get performances in without worrying about team scores.”

“It doesn’t change anything,” said sophomore hurdler Shannon McDougall about the non-scoring meet.

Angela Stoczynski,a freshman thrower, will try to make at least 40 feet in shot-put and beat her personal record in weight throw which she set last weekend at the Mega Meet at 40 feet, eight inches.

Stoczynski will have to add at least two feet in the shot put to place in the top 5, as the other throwers are averaging around 42 feet.

Samantha Manto, a freshman hurdler and sprinter, will work on her form and try to knock a few seconds off of her events, the 60-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash, and 4×400.

Her previously run times at the Early Bird and EIU Mega Meets however would not leave her among the top women finishers, just like Stoczynski.

“If you worry about what the other team is going to do you lose focus on what you need to do,” Akers said.

Some athletes on all of the teams will be running their secondary events since no scoring is done.

Some athletes will be “running down.” This means running events lower in distance than their primary events in order to work on speed.

Freshman Violet Nwordu will be doing just that. She is entered in the 60- and 200-meter dashes rather than her usual 400.

“The unique aspect of track and field is that it’s always a battle against yourself, and the stop watch, tape measure or something of that nature,” said head women’s coach Mary Wallace.

And that’s what the women will be doing on Saturday. With competition like Illinois State, Illinois-Chicago, and Big 10 school Wisconsin, the Panthers will be pushed by their opponents and in some cases only the stop watch, as a first place position may be realistically out of reach.

“We do what we need to do now in order to have what we need to have in February,” Akers said. “February is when the Conference Championships are held.”

Stoczynksi said she enjoys competing against bigger schools.

“It’s an eye opener,” she said. “It lets me know what I can accomplish.”

“I think it’s good so everyone can work on their personal goals,” Manto said.

The coaching staff hopes that when the athletes are put into a setting where they have high competition it will bring out good performances and inspire them.

“It’s not about who’s in the lane next to you, or who just threw right before you, it’s about what you’re going to do when you step on the track, in the ring or on the runway,” Wallace said. “I think as long as they maintain that focus they’ll be fine.”