The Missouri Southern women’s indoor track and field team has competed in four meets this season.

Two of those five meets have been in Joplin, and the Lions have won both of them, including the Baymont Inn/Fazoli’s Open.

“This was our fourth meet this past weekend, and we’ve really had some nice performances throughout the season,” said Patty Vavra, women’s head coach. “We’ve put our underclassmen in a wide variety of events, and it helps us to see what the best fit is for them, and they have responded very well.”

Southern will next travel to the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, to compete, and the Lions are excited to once again take to the track in competition.

“We’re ready for it and excited about it,” said Danee Jones, junior thrower. “We’re just ready to go out there and compete. We need everybody’s top performance.”

“As a team we just need to come out and do what we did this week,” said Sara Mueller, sophomore jumper. “We just need to come out and compete.”

“It’s one of those meets where you have to go and show that you can compete with division one schools,” said Shonna Sherrell, junior hurdler.

The Lions are also gearing up for the conference championships, which will be held March 12-13 at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. There they will face the other teams in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a conference they know to be tough from top to bottom.

“We have a lot of outstanding athletes in our conference,” Sherrell said. “It’s just like being in division one. I can’t think of one school that you can discount. I’d say that across the board we are all pretty even.”

“All of the other schools are looking pretty good,” Jones said.

“The MIAA is always a strong conference,” Vavra said. “We won our home meet over Pittsburg State by 11 points, but we’re not seeing those teams in their full efforts. This early in the season, the intent is not to win meets as a team. But it is a confidence builder.”