A blend of youth and experience will lead the Illinois women’s track and field team back into action when it travels to Minnesota this weekend for the Big Ten Indoor Championships.

After taking the outdoor championships last year, the young Illini team will not be the favorite this weekend against strong schools such as Penn State, Minnesota and Michigan. But head coach Gary Winckler knows how useful this big meet can be for the future of his team.

“We want to go up there and compete to the best of our ability and compete hard,” Winckler said. “We’re not the same team we were a year ago with everyone we graduated, but we’re still a good team. We’re a younger team, so we’re going to get a lot of experience out of this, which will make us more prepared for the outdoor meet.”

The Illini will turn to seniors Tiara Armstrong and LaNeisha Waller for both leadership and scoring in their events. Armstrong will compete in the 60- and 200-meter races, while Waller will compete in the long jump and 60-meter hurdles. Armstrong benefited from the week off after suffering a minor hamstring injury at Iowa State.

“My focus for Saturday is making the finals,” Armstrong said. “I think many of the times anything can happen, so I want to be in the finals in the 60 and 200 and then coming out there Sunday, doing what I have to do to be in the top three.”

Armstrong finished third in the 60 and eighth in the 200 last year in the Big Ten. This season she has set personal bests in both events.

After missing the first three meets of the season, Waller has gradually worked her way up to full speed having already provisionally qualified in the 60-meter hurdles.

She is coming off a second-place finish in the hurdles last season in the Big Ten after winning the event at the 2006 Indoor Big Ten Championships. Running beside Waller will be junior Nikkita Holder, who has also provisionally qualified in the hurdles.

“I think we all need to be on our ‘A’ game,” Waller said about herself and her teammates having a chance at finishing first in the hurdles. “We have really good hurdlers in the Big Ten, so if we all go there and perform as we know we can and we do at practice, then I think it’s a possibility (we will win).”

Other Illini that Winckler will depend on for strong performances include Aja Evans, Alecia Beckford-Stewart and Angela Bizzarri. Evans is the school record-holder in the shot put and is ranked first in the Big Ten, but Winckler acknowledged she will face a tough field of shot putters.

Like Evans, Bizzarri is ranked first in the conference in the mile and the two-time cross country All-American will be the favorite to take the event.

Beckford-Stewart will compete in the pentathlon where she has already provisionally qualified. She will go against one of the tougher conferences in the country known for producing pentathlon athletes.

The Big Ten Championships will start Saturday morning and go through Sunday morning in Minneapolis.

“Practices have been going really well,” Winckler said. “Everybody’s in good spirits and we’re ready to make the trip Friday. This is the time where we need to be focusing on the things we need to prepare for, and that’s the Big Ten.”