The Missouri Southern men’s track and field team travels to Norman, Okla., Saturday, to compete in the University of Oklahoma Invitational.

One week earlier the team placed second in the Baymont Inn/Fazoli’s Open in Joplin. The Lions finished behind Pittsburg State University by five points.

“It’s always good to be humbled periodically,” said Tom Rutledge, men’s indoor track and field team coach.

“Yes, we lost by five points to Pittsburg State. Pittsburg has a good team. We didn’t run our best, either. You have to put those things into perspective. We had some guys do a great job and really improve, but we don’t make excuses. We should have still won that meet. And you put things into perspective, and you go back to work on Monday. That’s what we do.”

The Saturday meet will be the Lions’ last before the conference championship, and they are eager to face off against their competition.

“We’re just going to go down there and compete like we always do,” said Chris Turner, junior pole-vaulter.

“We just need to compete like we know we can,” said Niel Holmes, junior sprinter. “We need to go out and run as hard as we know we can,”

With just one meet left before the conference championship, the Lions are beginning to fine tune their performances and are confident they will perform well at the meet.

“Our shorter distance people are really starting to make a move,” Rutledge said. “Are we making a move soon enough? I don’t know. They are starting to understand to do the little bitty discipline things that are required at the collegiate ranks. We seem to be picking ground and improving, and you can’t criticize a young man when he improves his times every week.”

“I think that we’re ready,” Turner said. “We still have to get some people healthy. If we get everybody healthy, which we should have by the conference meet, we should be ready. We just need to compete hard and do what we’ve been doing.”

“We just need for everybody to come together at one meet,” Hombs said. “We need to work hard in practice and do what coach tells us to. There is no question in my mind that we can compete for the conference title.”

“We know that we’ve got some talent, Rutledge said. “We’ve just got to put it all together in two weeks.”