This weekend was a chance for the Cyclone track team to get its feet wet.

It was also a chance for the coaches to gauge where the team is.

“I think we’re in a good spot, we’ve got some forward momentum. We had some really good things happen, and I think we’ll take what we did this weekend and learn from it,” said head coach Corey Ihmels.

The team was successful this weekend although they split into two groups. One group went up to Palo Alto, Calif., where senior distance runner Kiel Uhl ran 28:56 in the 10,000-meter run. That mark puts him on an elite list of ISU runners.

Only seven Cyclone runners have ever broken 29 minutes in the 10,000-meter run in Iowa State’s long tradition in track and field, making Uhl’s accomplishment remarkable.

“I think Kiel’s performance was great, it was awesome … so that was tremendous,” Ihmels said.

Ihmels was also impressed with his team as a whole after this weekend.

“I thought we got a lot of things accomplished. Coming from indoors out, I felt like we had a good break to take a step back. I felt like we came in energized and had some really good things happen,” Ihmels said. “I thought we had some pretty good performances at Stanford. Out at North Carolina, we had a lot of good things happen. The throwers group did a great job and [we had] some positives in the sprints and hurdles.”

The majority of the team headed out to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the Raleigh Relays. Out east the throwers had their day as Luke Pinkelman threw 16.03 meters and finished eighth, with teammates Mitch Weber and Zac Brouillette right behind him.

Brouillette also did well in his event of choice, the hammer throw, finishing fifth overall. This weekend was Brouillette’s first throw since finishing 12th at NCAA Indoor Championships.

“It felt good. I’ve had two weeks to train, and get back into things. I started off almost 3 meters better than what I started last year so that’s a great start and I’m happy with it,” Brouillette said.

The coaches said that this weekend was a great meet to show the progress that the team is making and also for the athletes to get outdoors and start to race.

“We’re in a good place to go ahead and attack and move forward. I think we learned some valuable lessons; some of them are hungry to get outdoors, some of them are hungry to get going,” said assistant coach Nate Wiens, “but I thought that as a whole it was a good starting meet to see what some of our young guys can do and where some of our returners are at.”

Ihmels and Wiens both agree the team is in good shape so far, and they are both excited to see where the team is going.

“It was just a chance for us to start the season and get a barometer of where we are at and get excited about the rest of the season,” Ihmels said.