Most of the Cyclones head to Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday to compete in the Jim Duncan Invitational, while the distance runners head to the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California.

The Cyclones will look to build off the success that they found at their last outing in Miami at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational, where they had two first-place finishers. In the women’s 800-meter run, Makayla Clark placed first overall with a time of 2:04.70, moving up from ninth to seventh in Iowa State history.

Darius Kipyego placed first overall in the men’s 800-meter run with a time of 1:45.76, taking a whole second off his previous best time this season. The men’s discus also had an impressive showing with Kevin Sakson leading the Cyclones in the men’s discus throw and placing second overall with a throw of 55.93 meters. Right behind Sakson was Cam Jones, who placed third overall with a new season-best throw of 54.56 meters.

The Jim Duncan Invitational will be a test that the Cyclones should pass. The meet matches them up with all of the big universities in the state in Drake, Northern Iowa and Iowa, all of which the Cyclones became familiar with during the indoor season and had great success against. The toughest test for the Cyclones will be the Hawkeyes, who have started the season well and had multiple first-place finishers in every meet.

The Bryan Clay Invite should be a tougher test for the distance runners for the Cyclones. The Bryan Clay Invite will feature runners from Iowa, Alabama, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Minnesota and Clemson, just to name a few. The distance runners for Iowa State will have to be on their A-game if they want to build on the success they found last week.

The Bryan Clay Invitational starts Thursday and will run through Saturday, and the Jim Duncan Invitational will begin Friday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.