Led by two champion hurdlers, the ISU track and field teams finished strong with a partial women’s team in California for the Brutus Hamilton Invitational and the rest of the team at Cedar Falls for the Mark Messersmith Invitational.

Rebecca Williams and Sara Boisen highlighted the nine women who made the trek to Berkeley, winning the 100-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles, respectively.

Williams, who redshirted the indoor season with a hamstring injury she sustained before competing at nationals nearly a year ago, qualified for the NCAA regionals on May 27 and 28 with a time of 13.75 seconds.

“I have a ways to go as far as getting my speed back,” Williams said. “I think I am about where I was last year at this time, so I need to get back to nationals and place a lot higher.”

Boisen ran her fastest time of the year in the 400 hurdles, 1:01.47, and was close to getting a regional qualifying mark.

Williams and Boisen joined leadoff woman Ada Anderson and anchor Jenny Mockler on the first-place 4×400-meter relay squad.

“Jenny ran an awesome split,” said sprints coach Steve Roberts. “We’ve been messing around with the order lately, and we may have found it.”

It was the first time the four ran together in this event.

Mockler said the team was in second when she began her anchor leg but credited her teammates for putting her in the position to take the lead.

In Cedar Falls, there were many top performances, despite 15 to 20 mph wind gusts.

The men swept the top four places in the 1,500-meter run, with unattached runners David Rotich and Dan Taylor finishing first and second, respectively, and David’s brother, Abraham Rotich, placing third and Leif Lomeland fourth.

David also won the 800-meter run, despite facing strong winds that he said felt like “running into a barrier.”

Tony Stewart threw a regional-qualifying mark of 184 feet, 9 inches in the hammer to finish third and also placed fourth in the discus (175-7).

For the women, Erica Lynn ran a personal-best time of 14.17, beating her previous best time of 14.8.