The afternoon started slowly for the Iowa State men’s and women’s track and field teams, but the night ended with a bang on the first day of the ISU Open.

Although the results at the end of the day wouldn’t show it, it was several hours into the meet before the Cyclones would experience any successes.

The meet opened with the women’s weight throw and the men’s and women’s long jump, events the Cyclones would show up strongly in.

Freshman Leishema Hampton would end the day as the champion in the women’s weight throw with a throw of 56-03, followed by her teammate, senior Amy Waggoner who managed a 55-04.25 throw.  Two other Cyclone women made it into the top ten, freshman Danielle Frere and sophomore Britta Christofferson.

“I’m pretty happy with my throws, especially with the way I’ve been feeling lately,” an ill Waggoner said after her throws Friday night.  “I was really consistent today, and I’m happy with that consistency.”

Throws coach John Dagata wasn’t thrilled with the way his women performed, but still took some encouragement from it.

“I think my girls struggled in the weight tonight,” Dagata said. “But, you know what the best part about it was? They worked together, they kept fighting.”

The performance by the ailing Waggoner showed a lot to coach Dagata, as well as her young teammates.

“I thought the best of them all was Amy,” Dagata said on the lone senior of the squad. “She did a wonderful job of going in early and getting a good mark and showing the other kids that no matter what, we’ve got to be good. They showed a lot of heart.”

After the dominating performance by the Cyclone women, Zac Brouillette and the rest of the men tried to follow that with a win of their own. And they did not disappoint.

Brouillete came out and established himself with early throws, before wowing the dwindling crowd with some near-20 meter throws to end the night.

“To throw those distances, the commitment he’s shown this year, and the shape he’s gotten in, I’ve got to tell you I don’t think I’ve ever had a guy more committed than Zac Brouillette,” Dagata said.

Brouillette approached the elusive 20-meter mark with a throw of 19.92 meters to win the event on the men’s side.  The throws preceding the winner rose from 18 meters to 19.72 before he threw the meet winner.

“We’re not there yet, but he (Brouillette) could do something really special,” Dagata said. “And he deserves it. Nobody deserves it more than him.”

But like his teammate Waggoner, it may be Brouillette’s leadership, not his big throws that mean the most to the team.

“He showed the group that it’s never over, and you must perfect your plan,” Dagata said. “We have young kids saying ‘That’s what we have to be, we have to be Zac Brouillette.’”

When it came to the Cyclone jumpers and sprinters, the success was harder to find. No race winners, and just four other top-ten finishes among them, coaches for both groups had to look to find positives.

For sprints coach Nate Wiens, Lashawn Wright was the top performer with a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter dash.

“I thought my group did well today,” Wiens said. “I think it was a good experience.  We had a couple young athletes that really came out and did well.”

“What I’m seeing is a general progression from where we are now to where we want to be in a couple of weeks,” Wiens said.

The jumps group and their coach Pete Herber saw freshman Diane Lindsey finish seventh in the long jump, and Caitlin Weber finish a surprising 6^th in the pole vault.

“Today was a kind of test for us,” Herber said.  “We did okay, I’m not going to say I’m happy with it, but there are some positive things we can take from today.”

The Cyclones will take on a full slate of competition Saturday, starting with the women’s shot put at 10:00 A.M.  The day will feature stars for both the men’s and women’s team such as Lisa Koll and Kiel Uhl in the 3,000-meter runs in the afternoon.