Heavy competition awaits the No. 13 Longhorns Saturday and Sunday in Ames, Iowa, for the Big 12 Indoor Championships.

Texas will send a group of 24 to compete against a field that includes three other teams in the conference ranked in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association: No. 5 Kansas, No. 12 Iowa State and No. 22 Oklahoma State.

Since the League was established in 1996, Texas has won a conference-best five Big 12 indoor team titles on the women’s side.

“This group is in such an excellent place both mentally and physically,” interim coach Rose Brimmer said. “If we put every race on the track at the level that we know we are capable of competing, I think it’s going to be an exciting weekend.”

The Longhorns' 4X400-meter relay team of junior Danielle Dowie, junior Briana Nelson, senior Kendra Chambers and freshman Courtney Okolo enters the weekend with the best time nationally (3:30.95) among the collegiate ranks in 2013. The squad also heads to Iowa with a conference-best high jump mark (6-2/1.88m) from junior Shanay Briscoe and a No. 2 mark from junior Christy Udoh in the
200-meter dash (23.87).

The Longhorns will look to improve on last year’s second-place team finish.