The university's track & field team will compete in its first Big 12 Indoor Championships this weekend.

TCU head coach Darryl Anderson said this meet is bigger and more competitive than the university's previous conference championships.

The meet will take place at Iowa State's Lied Recreation Center. The center features a 300-meter track with eight lanes and is one of the largest and fastest indoor tracks in the world.

The meet will last two days with jumps, field events and running events each day.

Texas A&M, who moved to the Southeastern Conference after the last tournament, won both the men’s and women’s titles last year. The men’s team won two years consecutively, while the women have won five titles at this meet.

TCU competed at Texas A&M twice this season, earning multiple second-place finishes at the Texas A&M Challenge and four wins at the Texas A&M Invitational.

Anderson said the men’s team performed well at the Texas A&M Invitational, but the women have a challenge ahead of them.

“With the women, we’ve got an uphill climb as far as preparation and getting ready for the Big 12 meet,” Anderson said. “It’s going to take some time because we haven’t been in a Big 12 meet.”

Anderson also said the coaches need to adjust to the new conference by deciding which events to focus on.

“It’s going to be an experience as well as an education for us from the coaching perspective as to where we place our chips in the future,” Anderson said.