It was a big step, another giant building block, but there is still a long way to go.

For the ISU women’s track team, the ISU Classic was a showcase event. But, for the program as a whole, the Classic provided a measuring stick to see how far they have come and how far they have yet to go with just two weeks remaining before the Big 12 Indoor Championships.

“Obviously I wish we had more time,” head coach Corey Ihmels said. “I think in every event group you can see the kids are starting to come around. These two weeks are going to be big for us.”

Still, for Ihmels and the rest of the coaching staff, it is important to see how far they have come in their short time together.

For most of the staff this was just their second time participating in the ISU Classic and the first real competition for the recruits brought in by this group of coaches.

The progression seen by the young team has encouraged Ihmels and the rest of the staff, but they all know they still have work to do in order to be one of the top schools in the country.

“We’ve got a long way to go, we’re nowhere close to where we want the program to be, but I think we’re making progress,” Ihmels said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids working really hard. When you try to build a program from the ground up you are going to take some small steps forward and some big steps back, and I think we’re still in that stage.”

That “small steps” mentality has been taken on by all of Ihmels’s assistants, leading them to take some moral victories out of otherwise disappointing performances on the track.

On the women’s side, only senior Grace Kemmey and junior Jenna Caffrey finished inside the top five in their respective events, while no other Cyclones finished higher than tenth. Kemmey’s finish in the 5,000-meter run was good enough for an NCAA Championships provisional qualifying time, the only such qualifier for the women.

The major goals conveyed by the coaches are setting personal records each week, and showing that all of their work in practice is paying off by improving each time they hit the track.

“We were hoping that the majority of them would take strides forward,” assistant coach Nate Wiens said. “They went out and proved that the training is working and they’re getting better.

“We’re working toward that Big 12 level of competition. A couple girls are showing that they’re not there yet, but they’re on the track in two weeks we’ll see what shakes out.”

For the coaches, reaching Big 12 competition is about being consistent in training, and eliminating little mistakes in events that keep them from performing at their best.

“We have to learn from mistakes,” assistant John Dagata said. “What went wrong, what went right, and we have to take that information and we’ve got to make sure we’re really ready.

“It’s about proper training,” he added. “Proper attitude and proper temperament. All of those have to be equal, myself included.”

All the Cyclone coaches raved about the success of the Classic, from the top down, from organization to the officials that, as Dagata said, were “incredible.” Still, the coaching staff knows they have to take their success and build on it for two weeks if they want to see real progress.

“We had more success this weekend than we did last weekend as a whole,” Ihmels said.

“I think we’re becoming closer as a team and as we get closer we win together and we lose together.”