This past weekend, Marshall University track & field dominated in its final home meet of the 2018 spring season. The Herd now will turn its focus to the Conference USA Indoor Championships Saturday and Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama.

In the team’s four indoor home meets, Marshall won a dual meet versus Ohio and the Chipotle Marshall Invitational, tied for first in the Marshall Women’s Classic and finished second in the Thundering Herd Invitational.

“I’m excited for conference,” head coach Jeff Small said after the Chipotle Marshall Invitational. “I think that our team, in all areas, had a really good meet. We’ve been battling the flu, and we hope to get everyone healthy to go down to Birmingham and hopefully have our best Conference USA indoor meet ever.”

Marshall has twice competed outside of the Chris Cline Indoor Athletic Facility this season, once traveling to the Gladstein Invitational sponsored by Indiana and once to the Darius Dixon Memorial sponsored by Liberty. Small said he scheduled these events with a specific goal in mind.

“That will hopefully help our athletes be better prepared for the banked track we’ll see at the conference championships,” Small said.

Marshall competes on a 300-meter flat track. Both Indiana and Liberty have banked tracks, where both ends are curved upward. That forces runners to make adjustments in how they run in these events.

“It’s almost like running up a hill on both sides,” Small said.

The Herd has only ever finished as high as seventh at the C-USA Indoor Championships, in 2017. Prior to last year’s finish, the school had never cracked the top ten. The Herd placed last or next to last six times in the event.

Combined events will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday and conclude on Sunday afternoon. After the C-USA Indoor Championships, the Herd will not compete until mid-March at the 49er Classic in Charlotte, North Carolina, when it begins the outdoor season.

Luke Creasy can be contacted at [email protected].