For the past three seasons, senior

sprinter Ian Warner has claimed second place in the 60-meter dash.

But this season, he gets to claim the title after winning the event

Saturday at the Iowa State Classic in a time of 6.71

seconds.

Warner was a mere .01 seconds away

from a personal best in the event Saturday, and had finished in

second place every season so far in his Cyclone career, including

Friday’s preliminaries, prior to earning the crown on

Saturday.

“I was just focusing on getting the

win,” Warner said right after the race. “I wanted to [get a

personal record] and run in the 6.6s, [but] I didn’t get it. But

that’s okay, I’ve got Big 12s coming up, and I know that I can get

it there.”

Sprints coach Nate Wiens said Warner

has been running right at this time for the past three weeks and

this will be a great way to go into the Big 12 meet in two

weeks.

“This is just really good, and we’re

being consistent,” Wiens said. “A 6.71 is really good when you know

that you have the fastest time coming in and there is people to

race but you know that if you execute well, you’re going to win.

I’m really proud of him coming out and hitting right at his

[personal record], just excellent consistency, and we’ll get to Big

12 and light it up.”

Warner said he is in the top three

for the 60-meter dash in the Big 12 and will go down to College

Station, Texas, expecting to leave with a championship. The next

few weeks, he said, will be spent working on his speed in order to

earn that Big 12 title.

“I think we are really going to try

and work on some speed work,” Warner said. “We are just trying to

get faster going into it because we’ve done a lot of strength work

before, so now it’s just trying to get as fast as

possible.”

The Big 12 Indoor Championships will

be held on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25 in College Station,

Texas.