The Cyclones need to know where they are.

A year and a half into the rebuilding project taken on by head coach Corey Ihmels and his assistants, the Cyclone women’s track team is looking ahead to see where they stack up against the rest of the Big 12 early in the indoor season.

Iowa State will head to Lincoln, Neb. this weekend for the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational, a meet featuring national track powers such as Michigan and UCLA, but also many of the Big 12’s top teams.

“Every time you get the chance to compete against the best is a good thing,” Ihmels said.

Many of the Cyclone coaches are looking to this weekend to be a good barometer of their teams’ progression compared to the ISU Open held two weeks ago.

“We have to go there and compete with Big 12 schools,” assistant coach John Dagata said.  “We’ve changed some of our plans to make sure we’re ready. I think it’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be good.”

Under Dagata, the women’s throwers have put up very impressive numbers early in the season, led by senior Amy Waggoner and sophomore Britta Christofferson. Those two will have to perform well in order to lead a team of very young throwers into the intense competitions ahead.

“Amy and Britta have been there before, and learned some tough lessons,” Dagata said. “It’s going to be a lot better for the freshmen girls because they’ll see the older girls do what they have to do, and they get to learn from them.”

Freshmen throwers Danielle Frere, Laishema Hampton and sophomore Lillian Sawhill have also looked strong in their preparation for the Invitational, Dagata said.

The sprints group is another young group of athletes trying to find their way into Big 12 competition led by only a couple of upperclassmen who have been here before.

“We’re looking good. I don’t think a couple of the young people understand how good they are just yet,” sprinters coach Nate Wiens said. “I’m excited going into the next few meets.”

Junior Lashawn Wright will highlight the sprints group for the women. Wright will compete in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash.

“Lashawn has really turned a curve,” Wiens said. “We saw one or two things we needed to fix in regard to form and just being able to pinpoint the little things to get her faster.”

Wright also anchored the winning 4×400-meter relay team at the ISU Open, but Wiens was not sure on a finalized lineup for that race for this weekend.

The challenge that lies ahead of all the athletes, however, is adjusting to performing against the nation’s best week in and week out — something they’re not used to doing, having had only one meet so far this season.

“There’s a lot of good competition we’re going to be going against this weekend,” assistant coach Pete Herber said. “We’re just trying to mentally prepare the kids for that level.”

The Cyclones were not invited to last week’s Adidas Classic, also in Lincoln, which presented a unique situation for the teams. They now have just one more meet — the Iowa State Classic next weekend — and another off week to prepare for the Big 12 Indoor Championships.

“You’ve got to set yourself up against the Big 12 and that’s what our schedule does,” Ihmels said. “From this point forward we’re going to be at three of the better meets in the country. We’re fortunate we’re able to do that.”

The rebuilding process has been long and arduous for the Cyclone coaches, who have had to learn to take some small victories away from otherwise disappointing performances in the past.

Now, the coaches are trying to instill an attitude into their athletes that they can compete with the best.

“We have to keep your eyes up and forward, not so much down and looking side to side,” Wiens said.

“If you have them down looking side to side you’ll be focusing on those around you, not the ones you’re aspiring to be in the future.

“That’s the key to our success here right now with those young people, realizing there’s the goal, let’s go ahead and shoot for it.”