The Hawkeye women’s track and field team will start competition at the 2016 outdoor Big Ten Championships today, counting on the sprints to propel them past the Big Ten’s elite Wisconsin (21) and Nebraska (23), both ranked in the top 25.

Although the Hawkeyes are ranked fifth in the Big Ten standings, they own the top seed in each of the three sprint events.

Freshman Briana Guillory leads the 100 meters after running a time of 11.35 at the Musco Twilight on April 23. Senior Lake Kwaza (23.17) and junior All-American Elexis Guster (51.85) registered the Big Ten’s fastest times in the 200 and 400 meters, respectively, at the Jim Click Shootout on April 9.

Guster will go for her third-straight Big Ten title in the women’s 400 meters. The defending Big Ten champion raced to first place in 52.19 in 2015. If Guster wins the title, she will achieve a feat no Hawkeye ever has — winning the event three years in a row.

Guster is the favorite to win the 400 meters again, after clocking a time of 51.85 at the Click Shootout on April 9. That time leads the Big Ten and ranks ninth nationally.

Besides the sprints, the Hawkeyes will depend on some athletes who had solid finishes at the 2015 Big Tens. Senior MonTayla Holder recorded a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles. Sophomore Jahisha Thomas took sixth in the long jump and senior Dakotah Goodell finished seventh in the javelin.

Thomas feels that if she can find the proper takeoff on her long jump and her body is good to go, she will be ready to compete for a Big Ten title.

“I just need to get my body right,” she said. “For the long jump, if it just clicks, I really feel like I will be able to do something good.”

Holder finished fourth in the women’s 400-meter hurdles behind Symone Black of Purdue and Ohio State’s Alexis Franklin at the April 28-30 Drake Relays. Iowa Director of Track and Field Joey Woody has confidence that Holder can find her rhythm at the Big Ten meet.

“The 400 hurdles is a rhythm race,” he said. “I think sometimes you get caught up in the competition sides of things, and we kind of lose the rhythm that we need to run. [Holder] is a lot faster than she’s ever been, so I feel like she’s ready to be at the top of the Big Ten.”

One athlete who has put together strong performances recently is junior middle-distance runner Mahnee Watts. She won the women’s 800 meters (2:07.93) and anchored the winning sprint medley relay at Drake. Watts heads to the conference championships ranked seventh in the 800 meters with a personal best of 2:07.41.

Watts credits her Drake performance as preparation for the Big Ten meet.