Cyclones transition to outdoor season

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Photo: David Derong/Iowa State Daily

Junior Jordon Andreassen competes in the women’s long jump event Friday night during the Iowa State Open at Lied Recreational Athletic Center.

Sally Donlin

The ISU track and field team has been transitioning to its outdoor season the past few weeks as the weather outside gets warmer.

A small group of the multi-event athletes will be competing in Berkeley, Calif. on Wednesday and Thursday, while a select number of throwers will be competing at Stanford on Friday and Saturday.

The team has been all over the map this week as chaotic schedules had throwers participating in a few Spring Break practices and coming back from a disappointing performance at the NCAA Championships.

The throwers and jumpers have been on their own at practice the past couple of days since coaches Pete Herber and Grant Wall left earlier than the rest of the group for Berkeley, Calif. on Monday.

Multi-event athletes competing Wednesday for the Cyclones include Jenny Dillon, Anna Holtermann, Jordon Andreassen and Jamal Currica.

Coach Corey Ihmels is interested to see how his team does in California where the team will be separated into different locations.

“It’s just a chance for our multi-event kids to get a chance to compete outside,” Ihmels said.

Currica’s finished seventh at the Big 12 Championships his first competition in the heptathlon with 5,324 points, earned 15th place in the long jump, and picked up personal bests in the 60-meter dash and the pole vault.

Andreassen, a junior, has impressed Ihmels with her hard work paying off, including the Big 12 Championships where she finished 10th in the pentathlon and finished third in the long jump with a personal best of 17 feet, 10.25 inches in the ISU open.

Dillon and Holtermann, both freshmen, each earned personal bests at the Big 12 Indoor Championships as well in the shot put and other track and field events.

The four multi-event athletes will be facing competition that is right around their level.

“The invite should be pretty well attended,” Ihmels said. “Most of the teams around the country are on spring break or have had spring break so we will have lots of different teams from all around the country.”

The team will take the first few meets as a chance to get outside and evaluate where they are at.

After this week, the whole squad will be together when they travel to Missouri.