GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The indoor track and field season resumes with the first of four straight weekends of regular-season action for the Minot State teams, and it's time to start highlighting improvements.

The Beavers returned from the holiday break with some strong performances at the Marauders Indoor Opener on January 17, which happened to be new head coach Erik Stevens debut.

That day's performances set the standard from which the Minot State student-athletes go forward in preparation for the NSIC Championships at the end of February.

"I have seen progression from all event groups over the last two weeks," Stevens said. "We have been hitting a good amount of technical work on the field-event side, while the distance and sprint crews have had a very solid training block."

Now that training gets a big test at the University of North Dakota Open as the Beavers go against the state's top NCAA Division I talent, pushing themselves to be the best.

"I'm excited to see how we approach a bigger environment," Stevens said.

The UND Open gets underway with multi-events on Friday, as well as the men's and women's discus throws, which take place Friday evening.

Minot State will be in action Saturday as field events begin at 11 a.m. with the long jump, while running races start at 1 p.m. with the 5,000 meters.

"If everyone approaches the day with the correct mindset, I believe that we can have plenty of results that reflect the work that we have been putting in," Stevens said.

So far this indoor season, the highlights for the Beavers have come from senior women's sprinter Summer Kresbabch, who clocked season-best times of 25.59 seconds in the 200 meters and 7.74 in 60-meter dash, which rank 10^th and 12^th in the NSIC, respectively, junior distance runner Bailey Wride, who ran a 5 minute, 16.16 second time in the mile, which is 9^th in the NSIC, freshman men's distance runner Zander Grover, who clocked a time of 2:44.92 in the 1,000 meters, which is 11^th in the NSIC, and sophomore long jumper Brayan Augustin, who broke an NCAA Division II-era school record with a leap of 22 feet, 5 inches in the long jump, which ranks 14^th in the NSIC.