This is the time of year Wendel McRaven loses sleep.

Despite having coached at Illinois for five years, the Illinois men’s track and field distance coach can’t help but feel nervous for his athletes when they compete in the Big Ten Indoor Championships this weekend at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

More than half of those competing for the Illini this weekend are underclassmen who are participating in their first Big Ten Championship meet, and interim head coach Mike Turk and McRaven said they get just as nervous as any of their athletes do.

“I’m nervous for every meet,” Turk said. “Going back to our first meet against Iowa, some people would say that it’s a meaningless early-season dual meet, but I was still really nervous.”

McRaven, who also coaches the men’s cross country team, said that around this time of year he sleeps a little less because he hopes his runners do their very best against such tough competition.

Last year, the Illini placed seventh in the conference for the second straight season, scoring 55 points overall. The majority of points were accumulated from three event-winning performances, which accounted for 30 of the team’s points. This year, Turk said that the team is built differently, which will allow for more points.

“This team is much younger and much deeper than in the past,” Turk said. “Because we’re going to get contributions from more people in more areas, we should be able to score more.”

The Illini has faced nearly every Big Ten team at some point in the season. This has allowed for Turk to make appropriate goals for his team going into the meet.

“Our goal this year is to place in the top half of the meet as a team,” Turk said. “Being in the top five of the Big Ten would be a great stepping stone for our program.”

While some of the coaching staff seems to be a tad anxious, there are some competitors going into the meet with a more relaxed mentality, as they are the few veteran runners with experience.

“I think I’m prepared for the (Big Ten Indoor Championships),” senior high jumper Greg Shroka said, who set his 2009 indoor best at the meet last year. “I’m just focusing on putting myself into a position where I can win. If it takes a (personal record) or whatever, I just want to be the last one jumping.”

Other athletes to watch out for are junior Matt McHugh (throws), junior Oz Lifshitz (triple jump) and sophomore Andrew Riley (sprints). Last season, Riley used the Big Ten Indoor Championships as his coming-out party when he set an Illinois school record in the 60-meter hurdles. He will compete in the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles and long jump this year. He is a threat to score major points during this weekend’s competition at Minnesota.

“Our goal here for the program is to win a championship,” Turk said. “We’re not necessarily in a position to do that now, but everything we do is geared towards preparing us to win a championship. We’ve talked about changing the culture and the direction of the program and I think we’ve turned the corner. We’re starting to build a little momentum and how far we go down that path is up to our guys this weekend.”