Betsy Saina completed her goals in a convincing way at the Big 12 Championships this weekend.

Saina, the returning Big 12 champion in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs, successfully defended her titles and added the mile run to her list of accolades. Saina is the first-ever ISU track athlete to win three titles at a conference meet.

The distance runner cruised to a first-place finish in the 5,000-meter with a time of 16:07.19 on Saturday. A time of 4:44.68 was good enough to give Saina first place in the mile and 9:14.45 won her the 3,000-meter race.

“This weekend was great; I knew I was very fit and basically my training has been going amazing,” Saina said. “Trying three events was new; I usually only do two and coming here today my goal was to win consecutive races.”

Three seconds separated Saina from the rest of the group in both the mile run and the 3,000-meter run.

ISU coach Corey Ihmels believes Saina is on another level when it comes to distance-running, and her ability to win with ease did not surprise him.

“Betsy had a very good meet, and she swept her events in a rather easy fashion,” Ihmels said after the meet. “She is one of the best in women’s distance at the college level right now and today exemplified that.”

Saina was joined by teammate Meaghan Nelson on the podium in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs. Nelson, who finished second behind Saina in both races, had been nicked up for the first couple meets of the indoor season.

Saina was confident in both her and Nelson’s abilities heading into the competition.

“Meaghan has been working very hard when she had some injuries in the beginning of the season, but right now she’s doing great,” Saina said. “We each said we needed to go top two and I really like her. She’s a fighter; we’ve been pulling for each other really badly.”

The 5,000-meter run was a productive race for Iowa State, aside from Saina and Nelson. Two more Cyclones reached the podium: Samantha Bluske finished fifth and Crystal Nelson finished seventh.

Cyclones finish third

The ISU women finished third in scoring 142 points throughout the meet, falling only to runner-up Texas and Big 12 champion Kansas. Iowa State placed sixth at the championships last season.

Iowa State had success in all aspects of the meet on the women’s side.

Four Cyclones placed in the top five of the 600-yard run, with Ese Okoro recording a personal-best time of 1:20.28 to finish first.

Sophomore thrower Christina Hillman finished in second place in the shot put with a personal-best throw of 57-09.50 feet.

“Well, it’s kind of bittersweet to score 142 points and come away with a third-place finish,” Ihmels said. “There were a few moments where we could have gotten some big points, but a lot of good things happened this weekend. We can’t dwell on the third-place finish because we will still come away with a lot from this meet.”