MOUNT PLEASANT - Former Iowa Wesleyan College track & field All-American Floyd Turner is competing against some of the elite athletes in the country at the USA national Indoor Track & Field Championships, being held this weekend in Albuquerque, N.M.

Turner will be competing in the shot put on Sunday after qualifying for the championships with a throw of 61 feet, 3 inches at the Illinois State University Redbird Open in December. He is one of a select group of qualifiers, part of a field of 15 athletes competing this weekend in the event.

The USA Indoor Track & Field Championships is the world's oldest indoor track championship and is the U.S. qualifying stage for athletes to perform on the world stage. Competitors will have the opportunity to qualify for Team USA events, including the 2010 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Turner was a four-time NAIA All-American and national champion at IWC, winning the outdoor national title in the discus all four years of his career from 2004-07. In addition to continuing to compete as a thrower, he also currently is an assistant track coach at Concordia University in River Forest, Ill., where he coaches the men's team's throwers.