DES MOINES — Sprints coach Nate Wiens greeted Krista Shoeman at the finish line on Saturday as the smiling runner came off the track.

Shoeman took first place in the women’s 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:01.02, as well as defeated an old rival.

On Thursday of last week, Shoeman had discussed her goals for the Jim Duncan Invitational. She said her main goal was to beat her rival from high school.

“We talked a little bit before, and it’s not one of those rivalries that are like, we hate each other’s guts,” Shoeman said. “It felt really good to compete at a level where I can beat people I wasn’t able to in high school.”

Shoeman said it has always been a clean and fun rivalry between herself and Northern Iowa’s Emily Roberts. The two battled throughout high school, and on Saturday, Shoeman was finally able to edge Roberts out.

“That’s why I’m most proud of her,” Wiens said. “She more than ‘I just want to run fast’ on the line, but add more of a ‘this is who I am as an athlete and what defines me [attitude].’ She’s just a great, young competitor.”

Part of the reason Shoeman was able to defeat her rival was because of her accomplishment on her stride progression in the hurdles. Being able to maintain a constant pace would ensure the most beneficial outcome.

“It was great execution,” Wiens said. “We were working on her stride patterns through seven and eight hurdles, and she executed it beautifully.”

Now that they have accomplished the goal of working through the stride patterns on the seventh and eighth hurdles, training will keep coming with more work on the next hurdles in Shoeman’s progression.

Wiens said it is a perfect point for Shoeman to be at in her season. The times and mechanics are where he wants them to be at, and the way she handled her race Saturday proves there is more to come.

“We kind of wave 61 [seconds] bye-bye and I think we’re ready for 60 and 59s,” Wiens said.

With a quick turnaround, the women will have only a three-day period to have some recovery time before another competitive meet next weekend.

“We always re-evaluate the week of and make sure everyone is feeling well,” Wiens said. “We were hard all the way through this [past] week and we finally get to start lightening the load, just a little bit.”

Wiens said he hopes to see some of that recovery and evaluation of performances show in competitions.

Both men’s and women’s track-and-field teams will head out Wednesday for the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.