The ISU men’s and women’s track and field teams enjoyed warm weather and solid performances this past weekend as they competed in the Arizona Invite at Tempe.

Women’s coach Dick Lee said that three athletes in particular shined and made this meet the best one in years to open up a season.

Leading the way for the women was junior Ola Adetiba. She began the outdoor season where she left off during the indoor season —setting records.

The Cyclone sprinter came in third place in the 200-meter dash, and set a new school record with a time of 23.77 seconds.

Finishing first in the 200 was Donica Merriman of Ohio State, running a 23.28. Erica Writer, running for the University of Tennessee Alumni, took the silver medal, finishing in 23.60.

Adetiba is coming off an indoor season in which she set new ISU records in the 60- and 200-meter dashes.

Her record times for those events are 7.47 and 24.02 seconds, respectively.

Adetiba said missing the chance to go to the national indoor meet by one spot has been a motivational tool for her. She thinks of it as “more motivating than saddening.”

Adetiba said she was happy, but not satisfied with her time. She came into the meet hoping to run under 24 seconds and hopes to get “a lot faster,” meaning dropping a half a second or so from her time, to insure that she will be in the NCAA meet for the outdoor season.

Adetiba also has her sights set on qualifying for the Olympic trials, which takes a time of 23.2 seconds.

Joining Adetiba in the record books is another Cyclone junior, Aurelia Trywianska.

She ran the 100-meter hurdles in 13.53 seconds, a third place finish and new school record.

First and second went to Ohio State runners. Merriman again won the gold with a time of 12.97, followed by teammate Dominique Calloway, who finished in 13.07.

During the indoor season Trywianska set a Cyclone best in the 60-meter hurdles, entering the record books with a time of 8.37 seconds.

Trywianska explained her success outdoors, saying that she just enjoys running the farther distance. She said the 60-meter hurdles are too short, but there isn’t much difference.

Trywianska said running a fast time early is great motivation to keep her running faster. Her personal best is 13.5, so she hopes to break that before the year is up.

Big 12 conference champion Barbara Szlendakova took third place in the long jump, leaping 19′-6″. Teammate Trywianska was fifth in the event, jumping 18′-11″.

The event was won by Elva Goulbourne of Central Arizona College, who jumped 21′-2″. Second place went to Notre Dame’s Tameshia King, who jumped 20′-1″.

Coach Lee said that the warm weather is optimal running conditions for the sprinters.

“It was a real good day for sprinting, it was tougher on the kids in the longer races,” he said.

Lee estimated the temperature was in the mid-80’s.

Heat affects the distance runners going more than 400 meters because they have yet to train in the heat, and it is harder to adjust when running farther.

Lee said the meet went pretty much as he expected. He said he figures there will always be a couple of good surprises, which Adetiba and Trywianska had.

But Lee also said that “nothing really stood out” as weaknesses for the team.

The men didn’t set any records, but the overall performance pleased coach Steve Lynn.

Junior hurdler Andy Long, whose times improved throughout all of the indoor season, placed first in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Lynn said he expects Longs first-place time of 13.9, a personal best, to drop all year.

Long, however, doesn’t consider the race a victory. He said his time was unofficial because the auto timer didn’t work, but the race was still ran.

The 13.9 Long received came from hand-held time, which is unofficial.

Long said a runner actually beat him, but when the race was ran again to get official times, he didn’t run due to a slight injury.

The runner who beat Long ran again, and ran a slower time than Long’s, so Long was given the victory.

The injury Long suffered was to his heel, but he said that it is just a deep bruise, and doesn’t anticipate to miss too many, if any, meets.

Cyclone Justin Hyde finished fourth in the 110 highs, with a time of 14.30 seconds.

In a highly competitive 1,500-meter run, Cyclone Daniel Kinyua finished fourth, less than two seconds behind the winner with a time of 3:48.19.

Coming in first, second, and third were Arizona State’s Brandon Strong, 3:46.86, unattached runner Christian Hesch, 3:47.53, and ASU’s Isaiah Festa, 3:47.63.

The meet also was successful for ISU throwers. All-American Jamie Beyer, who finished sixth nationally during the indoor season, placed third in the shot put despite a groin injury.

Beyer tossed the shot 58-8″ finishing behind unattached thrower Chima Ugwa, who won throwing 63-7″.

Lynn said that he doesn’t anticipate Beyer to be hampered too long by the injury.

Beyer is starting to throw well in practice, and expects to put it together in a meet soon, Lynn said.

Cyclone Zech Schiebout placed fourth in the discuss, with a personal best throw of 180-8″.

Lynn was very pleased with the throw, considering Schiebout’s old personal best was around 170″.

Beyer finished eighth in the discuss, throwing 167-1″. Ugwa was the discuss winner, hurling the disc over 200 feet, 201-0″ officially.

Lynn said overall he was pleased with the teams performance, he didn’t anticipate anything great in the meet.

The meet served as a chance for the athletes to prepare for the weather and other factors that come along with the outdoor season.

The meet did not have team scoring, so teams didn’t win or lose.

This coming weekend the men will travel down to Marysville, MO., but the women will not participate.