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MISSOULA- The University of Montana (UM) track and field teams will open the final month of their indoor season this week when the Grizzlies compete at two, one-day events at Moscow, Idaho. Montana will be at the 36th annual Vandal Indoor Friday and the Idaho Indoor Open Saturday.

Both meets will be held at the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center, which features a 290-meter flat track. Montana has only run on Montana State's 200-meter banked track and Washington State's 200-meter unbanked track to this point.

Friday's meet, which does not start until 5 p.m. local time for the field events and 6 p.m. for the running events, is a true invitational. Only athletes who have met minimum requirements are allowed to enter.

The Vandal Indoor does not have the long jump because of shared runway issues and does not have any running events longer than the mile.

The Idaho Indoor Open begins at 11 a.m. local time Saturday with both the running and field events and is open to all comers. The 3,000 meters is included in the running events lineup, and the long jump will be contested but not the triple jump.

UM track and field program director Brian Schweyen said that the larger track that the team will be competing on this weekend is going to be beneficial.

"Schools that have indoor facilities get used to running on banked tracks and learn how to use them, so that puts us at a little bit of a disadvantage at those meets. For a team like us that does a lot of its workouts at this time of the year on a 400-meter (outdoor) track, Idaho's track is closer to what we're used to, so I expect our marks to really jump up this week."

When asked about the Friday-Saturday setup, with many of the same events being competed both days, Schweyen pointed to the similarity this weekend's schedule has with the Big Sky Conference meet.

"It's actually a lot like conference. It would be similar to running a prelim on Friday and then a final Saturday."