It was an impressive showing for the ISU women’s track team at the Husker Invitational last weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The meet provided the women their first taste of Big 12-caliber competition for the season, and they came away with seven top-five finishes, including wins from junior Lashawn Wright in the 200-meter dash and freshman Kianna Elahi in the 600-yard run.

“It was good for everyone to get there and have a chance to see where we’re at,” head coach Corey Ihmels said. “We had some good things happen throughout all of the event groups.”

Wright struggled during the Cyclones’ first meet, the ISU Open, but rebounded well for the Husker Invitational by winning the 200-meter dash and finishing fourth in the 60-meter dash. She was openly upset with her performances in the Open, and worked with Wiens throughout the week leading into Lincoln on form and other aspects of her races.

“Lashawn is really coming around,” assistant coach Nate Wiens said Sunday. “We’re still working on little parts of her race.”

“We’re not changing everything she does technically, but for the most part we’re trying to put together a complete race. As soon as we can put together a complete race she’ll be in good shape, but the main thing I saw from her was she went out and competed hard.”

Wright is one of just a few upperclassmen running for the women this year, and is bound to be one of the favorites at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in just three weeks. Wright’s teammate Monique Hawkins also had a solid showing while trying to learn and improve in the 400-meter dash.

Hawkins finished 10th in the open 400-meter dash, and then stumbled and fell on the first leg of the 4×400-meter relay after getting stepped on out of the blocks.

“It was really unfortunate that Monique stumbled because we really had some girls that were ready to run,” Ihmels said. “She got tangled up in another runner and went to the track pretty hard. We were fortunate she was OK, but it was kind of a sour way to end the meet.”

Hawkins isn’t the only one improving every week for the Cyclones, as the freshman Elahi once again took the title in the 600-yard run with another tremendous performance.

Elahi ran the race in 1:23.55, fast enough to beat opponents from Kansas State and Nebraska, and besting her winning time of 1:24.15 from the ISU Open.

“With [Elahi] we just expect to see her getting better each week,” Wiens said of the star freshman. “Maybe we weren’t expecting that big of a drop from her, but that’s always fun when it does happen.”

The improvement encouraged Wiens and other coaches for Elahi leading into the ISU Classic, one of the biggest meets on the Cyclones’ schedule.

“Kianna works hard every day in practice and comes to compete every day,” Ihmels said. “She’s not afraid to put it out there and that’s what she did this weekend.”

Elahi is a native Nebraskan and had a great showing in her return to her home state. She is someone who Wiens and Ihmels both look to see what will happen each time she steps on the track.

“When Kianna steps on the track she brings a level of excitement to the team,” Wiens said. “You can tell she’s one of those athletes that never likes to lose. Even as a freshman she’s showing everybody else what it means to compete.”

Not only was the weekend a good time for the Cyclones to experience a banked track like the one they’ll be on at the Big 12 Championships, but for them to go against the Big 12-caliber competition they’ll also be seeing the remainder of the season. After the ISU Classic this weekend, they will take a week off and head in to the Big 12 Championships.

“One thing we can take from this weekend is the level of competition,” Wiens said. “As that level of competition increases their efforts need to increase as well.”

Ihmels was encouraged by his team’s performance against the increased competition, but still knows his team has a long way to go.

“It was a little bit of an eye opener for some of the athletes” Ihmels said. “We’re in the Big 12. It’s going to keep getting harder each week from here on out.”