Members of the state’s Big Four track and field teams head to Lincoln, Nebraska for tomorrow’s start of the N-C-A-A Central Regional. It is the first time that regionals have been used to qualify for the N-C-A-A Championships and Northern Iowa coach Chris Bucknam supports the change. He says it has been in the works for ten or 15 years and it has finally come to pass so there are more teams at meets.The top five individual performers and the top three teams in each relay event will qualify for the N-C-A-A meet. Bucknam says that is a major change in qualifying, as everything in the past was based on qualifying times, as the NCAA would take on the average the top 20 athletes.Bucknam says the season had become built around the qualifying standards and the team competition got lost in the shuffle. He says people were chasing meets all around the country trying to get the best time. Bucknam says the regional concept allows the northern schools more time to improve their times or distances. U-N-I will take a 21-member squad to Lincoln.