Ryan Barnes made eight 3-pointers in Veishea’s 3-point contest on Monday night.

Barnes, a freshman in kinesiology, may not have to wait long before he’s knocking down three pointers for Greg McDermott in Hilton Coliseum.

The St. Paul, Minn., native who played at Cretin-Derham Hall High School thought about transferring to McCarty State, a Division II school that had a spot waiting for him on its basketball team, but decided to come back to Iowa State and with the recent departures and transfers of ISU basketball players, he feels confident that he can walk on and earn a spot on McDermott’s team next season.

Barnes doubled as both a point guard and shooting guard in high school, but an actual 3-point contest was a new experience for him.

“I have never been in a 3-point shootout before,” Barnes said. “But I love to shoot.”

Barnes said his strategy going in was to relax, stay calm and find his shot.

Barnes’ eight shots held up for five more contestants before he was surpassed.

The contest was an open shooting contest that cost three dollars per attempt with participants being able to attempt as many times as they wanted from 7 to 10 p.m.

Keisha Wormley, one of only two girls in the 35-participant field, had the lead with 14 shots made by 8 p.m.

The champion will be decided after the second three point contest on Tuesday night, but Wormley finished the first night in the lead with her 14 made shots.

“I’ve been saying it since I saw I had 14,” Wormley said. “I feel great. It’s fun; I planned on beating all of them anyway.”

The Chicago native has been playing basketball since she was young and said her shot developed throughout high school and realized she could shoot the three point jump shot in her senior year at Thornton Township High School.

Wormley participated in last year’s 3-point contest, but was only able to muster up eight makes.

“I didn’t get all that far,” Wormley said. “I wasn’t able to get much of a warm up.”

Monday night’s Veishea activities also included a dunk contest.

Sophomore mechanical engineering major Peter Maki rose to the occasion with a total score of 79 on his two dunks.

Normal everyday practice is what helped Maki come away with the title.

“I didn’t do anything special,” Maki said. “I’m just up at the rec about every night just playing basketball and working on stuff. I just wanted to make sure I got past the first round so I could start pulling out the bigger stuff.”