LINCOLN, Neb. — The ISU men’s track and field team had a few high marks and some disappointments at the Big 12 Championships.

The Cyclones had a total of 44 team points for a 10th-place finish. They placed in 10 of 19 events.

One of the best accomplishments for the Cyclones came from Neil Hines in the heptathlon. Hines scored 5,050 in the event for a third-place finish, giving Iowa State six points.

“Neil was a great surprise,” head coach Steve Lynn said. “This is the first time that he has done the heptathlon in a big meet. It was huge, a great accomplishment. To get third place in the Big 12 Conference is awesome.”

Going into his final event, the 1,000 meters, Hines needed to beat a Nebraska runner by two seconds to move from fourth to third place. Hines said even though the 1,000 hurt the most, he did what he had to do.

“The 1,000 was the toughest, but it comes down to how much you want it,” Hines said.

“It is not my event. No one likes to do it, but I try to get myself pumped up to look forward to it because no one else does.”

Hines achieved a personal best in five of the events and said the ISU fans and athletes helped him out greatly in the last minutes of the 1,000.

“They cheered at the right time, just when I needed them the most,” Hines said.

In the weight throw, Kendall Fogle had a throw of 58-2 1/2, good for fifth place and four team points. Jamal Salahuddin achieved a fourth-place finish in the shot put with a toss of 58-10, scoring five points to the Cyclones.

“Jamal and Kendall both did a pretty good job,” throws coach Dan O’Mara said. “Jamal was ranked fourth going in and is still fourth going out. He has to throw an extra three feet if he wants to make it to nationals.”

O’Mara said Kendall also competed well.

“It was his second-best throw of the year,” O’Mara said. “Kendall’s training partners, Kris Ruhland and Tony Stewart, always push each other. But it was just Kendall’s day.”

Other events that scored team points were the jumps — primarily from the performances of Daniel Kaczmarczyk and Tony Douglas. Kaczmarczyk placed third in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump, scoring six and five points respectively. Douglas also scored in both events. Jumps coach Ron McEachran said both men did well.

“Tony has not jumped since the 20th of January, didn’t expect to place, and he moved into sixth place,” McEachran said. “Dan is doing a lot better. Daniel was behind in the triple jump, and then he came back. I am proud of them both, just the way they competed.”

Abraham Rotich ran to a fifth place finish in the 800-meter run with a new season-best time of 1:51.17. Rotich said he is happy that he scored for the team, and that next year, his senior year, he hopes to win the Big 12 title in the 800.

“The race was fast, which is good for me,” Rotich said. “I felt relaxed and didn’t have to push or run into other people.”

Another score came from Ryan Boyington in the 600-yard run.

“I ran one second faster than yesterday (preliminaries), but the competition was really tough,” Boyington said. “I am somewhat disappointed. I thought that I could have done better, but I got points and got to the finals.”

Boyington, a senior, said his ISU career has been a good experience.

“It has gone by so fast,” he said. “I got the opportunity to run against outstanding competition and travel with the team all over.”

Lynn said the two final events for the men were not the best for the Cyclones. Iowa State placed sixth in the distance medley relay and eighth in the 1,600-meter relay.

“We had good things happen and then got some sour taste in our last two events,” Lynn said. “The guys were ready but just didn’t do it.”

Lynn said the team had varying levels of success in the conference meet and will probably fare better at the NCAA Qualifier meet Saturday in Ames.

“Next week we will probably do great,” Lynn said.

“We placed better this year than last year. Last year we placed in five events and this year we placed in 11 events. If you place in this conference then you did a great job.”