Senior Nicole Flounders kept looking at her watch and thinking ‘ugh, five more hours, three more hours, two more hours.’

Flounders had to wait almost eight hours until her turn to compete on Friday night at the Indiana Invitational.

“By the time it got to my race, I was tired and sort of rusty from just sitting around all day,” Flounders said. “You have to stay active and focused the whole time and it is pretty tough.”

Not only is it tough mentally, it is also hard on your body because you run hard on Friday and then you have to go out and do it again on Saturday, said freshman distance runner Erin O’Grady.

This is normal for many athletes competing in two-day meets because the large number of participants requires many heats of a single event and it would be impossible to get all of it done in just one day, said women’s head coach Mary Wallace.

Freshman Caitlin Finnegan said there were 66 girls competing in the hurdles with 16 qualifying for semi-finals and only eight qualifying for finals.

Head coach Tom Akers said with an increased number of opponents, there is a lot more competition for Eastern to face and also for them to watch and learn from.

Finnegan said as a freshman, she thinks it is great to get the opportunity to watch all the tough competitors in the finals and hopes to be there next year.

Because the waiting can be draining, athletes are encouraged to do things to keep them busy while waiting for their event to start.

The runners take walks, eat, study, listen to music and watch teammates until it is their turn so they do not get too anxious or stressed out.

Sophomore distance runner Meghan Kennedy said that watching and cheering your teammates on is one of the best parts because they are normally competing or warming-up.

“I like (two-day meets) because you have more time to get into the atmosphere and it is a weekend full of what you love to do; running and watching your friends run,” Kennedy said.

The extra rest can be very beneficial to some athletes.

Last weekend sophomore distance runner Kim Archer competed in the mile on Friday and the 3,000-meter race on Saturday and was able to get a personal record in both.

One of the biggest advantages to these two-day meets is the practice the athletes are getting for the conference championships.

Graduate assistant coach Eric Vetter said that it is a great opportunity to run these meets two days in a row because back when he was an athlete he was not always given that chance.

“You would get to conference and you have to be able to run fast two days in a row with out any practice running back to back,” Vetter said.

Last weekend at Indiana was a little different because preliminaries for all events were on Friday and if the runners made it to finals they stayed on Saturday.

“It’s long, but it is definitely worth it because if you get to stay it means you worked hard enough to make it to finals; it is a privilege to stay an extra day,” said freshman Meghan Carney.

Wallace said it is especially difficult in the field events because an athlete can be on a roll after preliminaries and then they have to shut down and restart the next day instead of building off the momentum.

For example, freshman thrower Kandace Arnold threw the shot 13.85 meters in the preliminaries on Friday for third place but in the finals on Saturday she threw 13.33 meters and placed seventh.

“It is really hard to come back and re-create what you did the day before,” Wallace said.

In the conference championships preliminaries and finals for the same event are on the same day, which allows the athletes to focus on just one event at a time.

This weekend meet at Iowa State will emulate the conference schedule more closely than Indiana did with specific events being held on the same day.

“The two-day meets are good in some ways and not so good in others but basically it is a reality that if you want to be more prepared for conference this is a way you have to do it,” said distance coach Geoff Masanet.

Sophomore pole vaulter Tricia Gaumer vaults at the Mega Meet on Jan. 23. Gaumer and the team will travel to Iowa State and participate in a meet that will last two days in preparation for the three-day Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships beginning

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