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UA distance runners travel to Stanford

In preparation for next week's Jim Click Shootout, hosted by Arizona, the UA men's and women's track team will only be sending their distance runners to compete at the Stanford Invitational this weekend in Palo Alto, Calif.

The rest of the team will stay in Tucson and continue training.

The Wildcats are coming off their first home meet of the season in which several distance runners performed extremely well.

Arizona head coach Dave Murray wants to get his distance runners some extra races in preparation for the Pacific 10 Championships.

"We want some of our people like David Lopez, Mike Cramer and Katrin Engelen to get the chance to run a 10,000 (meter), and this is a good meet to do that," Murray said. "We are going to be focusing on getting a lot of our distance runners good qualifying time for the NCAA meet and Pac-10 meet, as well."

The distance team will try and build on their strong performances from last weekend's Willie William Classic.

Junior Tom Prindiville, who finished second in the 1500m, will be going against an elite class that includes the likes of this year's National Indoor Champion in the mile Stanford senior Gabe Jennings, and second place finisher junior Michael Stember.

"It should be a really competitive race," Prindiville said. "I'm expecting a real fast race."

Prindiville said his strategy in the race will be to "just hang on."

Also competing in the meet for the UA will be three-time All-American sophomore Tara Chaplin in the 10,000m. Engelen will also be running in the 10,000m for the first time this year.

The rest of the team heading to Stanford are senior Jeremy Lyon and sophomore Steve Smith.