CEDAR FALLS – In the final indoor meet before this week’s Big 12 Indoor Championships, the ISU men’s and women’s track teams sent limited runners to the UNI-Dome Open in Cedar Falls on Friday.

The highlight of the meet for Iowa State was David Rotich’s performance in the 800-meter run, in which he ran a time of 1:59.91 to take first. Although he finished first, Rotich said he should have gotten a better time.

“The problem was that the track has tight turns, and I wasn’t able to turn at a very fast pace,” Rotich said. “I’m used to the mile – this was quicker than I’m used to.”

Men’s coach Steve Lynn said he didn’t yet know what Rotich would run at the conference meet.

“We’re still not sure exactly what he’s going to run there,” Lynn said. “I thought it was good for him to get that 800 in. I think it set him up well.”

Finishing third and fourth in that race were Johnny Reel and Richard Newton, respectively.

Kellen Burl set a personal record with a time of 8.06 in the 60-meter hurdles, to place third.

“I thought that was a good confidence booster for [Burl] going into the conference meet,” Lynn said.

For the throwers, Kendall Fogle and Chase Madison took second and third, respectively, to set them up for the conference meet. Lynn said this week should be their best throws of the season.

“They’ve been training really hard, so they should be fresh for the first time” at the championship meet, Lynn said.

“Don’t be surprised if they throw well over a foot further than what they have.”

Isi Oamen finished second in the long jump, with a distance of 6.98 meters.

Overall Lynn said he felt good about the meet going into this week.

“We didn’t bring everybody up here but I thought the guys we did really did a pretty good job for us,” Lynn said. “I think we got some good out of the meet here; we’ll be ready to go for next week.”

The women’s team used the meet solely for experience, sending only seven competitors, five of which were underclassmen.

Freshman Leia Jackson finished second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.33, and third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.34.

Women’s coach Dick Lee said that he was happier with the performance in the 200 than in the 400.

“[The 400 was] an OK time, but not a great time for her,” Lee said. “She ran better in the 200. That was probably our best performance on the track.”

The other performance Lee said he was happy about was sophomore Megan Nielsen’s run of 9.29 in the 60-meter hurdles, after a run of 9.65 in the preliminaries.

“[She] came back and ran a much better finals race in the hurdles,” Lee said.

Sophomore Dawn Caffrey also took fourth in the 3000-meter run.

Lee said that he could see the progression of the freshmen on his team.

“We’re coming along. We still have a long way to go, too, with them, especially with the kids that aren’t used to competing during the indoor season,” Lee said. “There’s a big shock racing in the months of January and February. They’re used to not racing until March or maybe April for the first time they race, so it’s a learning experience for them.”

The University of Nebraska will host the Big 12 Championships on Friday and Saturday in Lincoln, Neb.