DENVER – The heavy lifting is just about over for the MSU Denver men's and women's outdoor track & field team.
 
The Roadrunners will compete this weekend at the interestingly-named CSU Pueblo Open Invitational with a couple of items on the agenda.
 
Item One: "It's our last chance to really load them up on volume and train through it," MSU Denver coach Janis Christopher said. "Because then we only have three more weeks left in the season, so we'll start our peak season and we'll start focusing on what events we want to run at the conference championships, and our training will head that direction."
 
Item Two involves qualifying for big meets in California two weeks from now.
 
"There are a couple of spots still being competed for, so it's an important meet for a couple of people who are looking to get their names on plane tickets to California," Christopher said.
 
One of the big names of the program is set to make her outdoor season debut this weekend, as sprinter Allyssa Romero is scheduleg to compete in at least the 400 meters.
 
"It's been one thing at a time in practice, and she says she feels great," Christopher said. "It'll be fun to get her going again."
 
Another big name for the Roadrunners is men's 800 runner Nick Nowlen, whose converted time of 1:51.51 just missed a provisional qualifying time (by .03) in the event last week on the same track.
 
"In the most horrible wind," Christopher said. "I've watched him run a lot of races and, from a racing standpoint, it was probably one of the best races I've seen him run. He raced well and he raced smart."
 
Nowlen currently ranks second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in the 800.
 
Meanwhile Ethan Loper, who ranks third in the RMAC in the 200 at 22.02, will run that event while also giving the 400 a try outdoors for the first time in nearly two years. The 6-foot-3 Loper could potentially be the ninth in program history to break 50 seconds in the event.
 
"We want to make sure it's an option when we're looking at scoring potential for the conference championships," Christopher said. "He'll run the 100 several times in California, and then we'll be able to see where he's at in those events and where he has the most potential to score points.
 
"I've always believed that Ethan could be a great 400-meter runner. I still do."
 
Meanwhile, Anthony Martinez not only ranks fourth in the RMAC in the 110 hurdles, his specialty, at 14.61, but he's also dabbled in the 100 meters and ranks sixth in the league in that event at 11.05.
 
"Anthony has been a nice surprise and has run some really good times," Christopher said. "And it's a good to have hurdlers get some volume under their belt and double up on that. He did a great job with it indoors and he liked it, so we've stuck with it."
 
Several other Roadrunners have already made a notable impact on the RMAC performance list, including Claire Hummel (first in the women's 200 at 25.60), Abi Read (second in the women's 10,000 with a provisional qualifying time of 36:24.74) and Brooklynn Jones (first in the women's javelin at 39.87 meters).
 
"As long as the weather is good, I think we could see some big improvements for Brooklynn and Teagan (Garand)," Christopher said. "They're ready to throw pretty far."