SCHEDULE | LIVE RESULTS | LIVE STREAM (Fri./Sat.) | INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Idaho track and field is ready for the next portion of the season, with the 2017 Big Sky Outdoor Championships taking place this week in Sacramento.
 
The multi-events begin on Wednesday, with Idaho's Drew Thompson taking on the field in the decathlon.  Thompson was tremendous in the event last season, taking fourth overall in an incredibly competitive field.  Thompson won two of the 10 events within the decathlon and set or tied six personal bests during the two-day competition.
 
Individual events begin on Friday and run through Saturday.  A live stream will be available throughout the day on Friday and Saturday and can be accessed through the link provided at the top of this article.  Live results from the entire meet will also be available through the link provided above.
 
Stay in tune with GoVandals.com or on Twitter with @IdahoTrack throughout competition for complete recaps and reactions from each day's events.
 
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The Vandals bring a talented squad on both sides and feature a number of athletes currently ranked in the top-five in their respective events.  Mack Baxter is one those individuals, as he currently leads the pack in the 400-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 51.98 seconds.
 
"I know that the guy who was first for a while, we kept trading back-and-forth, and you can't forget about Zion (Stuffle) in third and in fourth place the guy who won it last year.  It's neck-and-neck, but I know that if it comes down to a guts-race I feel like I have the finish to pull through.  I know all those guys are really good and they're definitely going to give it everything they've got.  It's going to be a good race."
 
Baxter posted the impressive time nearly two weeks ago at the Oregon State High Performance Meet, competing against some of the nation's best, both collegiate and professional.  The time would have been good enough to smash the facility record, but Baxter was edged out in the end by former three-time NCAA Champion Jeshua Anderson.  Baxter was recognized by the conference as the Big Sky Male Track Athlete of the Week.
 
"People say I got the stadium record but to be fair Jeshua has it.  He's the Olympian.  I think it helped a lot that I had Jeshua in my race.  A lot of people would be timid about that, but I feel like I kind of rose to the occasion.  I figured he was an Olympian, he was going to come out hard and pull me too.
 
"I feel like I matured a little bit there.  I knew he was going to run fast, but I didn't really focus on what he was going to do.  I knew it would be good, but I didn't realize how close I'd end up being.  It helped a lot with the confidence.  Going into the race, instead of praising him and thinking 'wow, this guy is really good' I just focused on my own race and race plan and knew it would work out well.  That was the first time that my new race plan really worked out and everything came out smooth.  It was really special to run against that high caliber of an athlete."
 
It's complicated and complex, and it's a lot more than one should normally be thinking about in just 51.98 seconds.  But Baxter's race plan, built with his coaching staff to give him the best shot at winning, has proven its worth.
 
"The race plan is kind of like a goal, for what you set when you go out.  It's basically where you set where you're going to not really relax, but more conserve yourself, or run fast but comfortably.  Then everyone has their different place where they're going to surge.  It's crazy how much planning goes into it because it's done like that.  Leading up to the race you think of everything you can do.  Usually I just try to set that one goal and that's the first 14 steps, and I know that if I hit that I'm good to go."
 
Baxter is hoping to become just the third male Vandal to win a conference championship in the 400-meter hurdles.  Idaho's last winner in the event was Paul Thompson in 1996.  The preliminaries for the event will take place at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, with the finals going down at 2:05 on Saturday.  Also competing will be teammate and 2016 runner-up Zion Stuffle, currently the third-ranked athlete in the event.
 
"I would attribute a lot of my fitness upgrade to him.  Also Kaizer (Gillispie), he's a 400-runner, we run workouts a lot with each other.  Going into the outdoor season we got a lot of 300-hurdle workouts in together.  It helped me put myself in a mindset to where I knew where I was going to be.  Through our workouts I'm right there, next to the guy that got second last year, so he helped me drive harder and run harder.  And I think the same goes for him.  We just bounce back-and-forth of just using each other as a fuel to keep running."
 
Baxter's top mark is tied for the fourth best in Idaho program history and has Baxter in 39^th in the West and 59^th in the nation.  He's not worried about the next step yet, and remains focused on the Big Sky Championships.
 
"Something my high school coach taught me is to just take it one race at a time.  I don't really know any of the other times, they're all really close.  For the most part I'm just concerned with Conference right now and once that's over I'll just set it up for the next one.  I just usually try to take it one race at a time because I know if I start to think about anything else I'll forget about what I need focus on."
 
And that's a Big Sky Championship.
 
To stay current on all Vandal Athletics visit GoVandals.com, or follow the Vandals on Twitter, @Idaho_Vandals.
 
Fans can stay up-to-date on all things Idaho track and field/cross country by following the team on Twitter @IdahoTrack.