With a strong showing at the Cyclone Holiday Classic last weekend, the Iowa State men’s track team showed a sign of things to come for the 2001 season.Coach Steve Lynn returns to the helm of a Cyclone squad that is looking to establish itself on the Big 12 and national stage.”There are really quite a lot of unknowns heading into this season,” Lynn said. “One of our main goals is to make solid improvement as the year goes on and we will see where we stand by then.” Coming back to lead the Cyclones are seniors Joey Brunkhorst and Zech Schiebout. Both specializing in field events, these two leaders will be instrumental in guiding the cardinal and gold down the right paths for the 2001 campaign.Brunkhorst leads a talented group of high jumpers this season and as a 7’3″ jumper he will be someone Lynn can count on to tally points at every meet. Andy Kohler is a freshmen who was chosen the Gatorade Track Athlete of the Year during the junior year of his prep career. The local Ames high standout is another jumper who can go above 7’00” and will push Brunkhorst all year.Schiebout is a returning NCAA and Olympic trials qualifier in the discus who along with Brunkhorst will provide the ‘Clones with an excellent showing in the field events each time they compete.However, while Lynn will rely on the strength of the field events, the middle distance runners look to be the strength of the team.Dan Reis, Nic Weers, and Troy Weiland are all back from the NCAA qualifying distance medley team and will be counted on once again to solidify the middle distances for the ‘Clones.”Dan, Troy, and the rest of the middle distance guys are all really talented,” Lynn said. “You can say that the middle distance will be one of our strengths but I believe that we have talented people in every area.”Like every other major sport, one of the problems that can affect a track and field team are injuries. Coach Lynn knows that as long as his men can stay healthy, success will be close behind.”That will one of the keys for this season, staying healthy,” Lynn said. “I feel if we can do that, we can be competitive at every meet this season.”Iowa State has been preparing itself for a grueling season that will feature some of the best competition in the country. Highlighted by the ISU open and the ISU classic, the Cyclones will be running a home schedule that will truly challenge this young team.”There will be many huge meets at our place, with some of the best competition in the country coming to Ames,” Lynn said.As far as the conference slate goes, Lynn knows that his squad will be hard pressed to crack the top three of an extremely talented conference.”My goal is to finish in the top half but I don’t know if we can be satisfied with that,” Lynn said. “We want to be back competing to win again.”I don’t want to sell these guys short though. They might fight their way into the top four, but we will shoot for the top half of the conference right now.” Iowa State continues their young season by making the trek north to gopher country this Saturday to compete in the Minnesota Open.