Three complete and healthy seasons guarantee nothing for a senior athlete in terms of being prepared for any unexpected challenges.

ISU women’s hurdler Alyssa Gonzalez never expected to have her final indoor track and field season shut down because of an injury, but when she experienced a strained hamstring in January she knew exactly how to handle it.

“I’ve never been injured before, so it was definitely the hardest thing I’ve had to go through,” Gonzalez said. “Mentality wise, it was probably the toughest having to come to practice every day and see my teammates do what I wanted to do.

“But it taught me a lot; it helped me grow. I think I’m a lot stronger now and I’m a lot more ready to compete than I was beforehand.”

Nursing an injury requires patience, which can be difficult to possess for a senior athlete who is running out of time and eligibility. Returning from an outdoor season in which Gonzalez displayed improvement in nearly every meet didn’t make it any easier.

The 2014-15 indoor and outdoor track seasons were Gonzalez’s first as a Cyclone. The Tampa, Fla., native, spent two years at Central Connecticut State before becoming a walk-on transfer at Iowa State.

In her first outdoor season as a Cyclone, Gonzalez set a personal record in the 400-meter hurdles five times and just missed out on qualifying for the NCAA Championships after finishing 14th at the NCAA West Preliminaries in a time of 59.23.

The improvements set up Gonzalez for a great opportunity at qualifying for nationals entering her senior season, but then the injury kicked in in January after she had already competed in two meets, making her ineligible to redshirt.

“You don’t know what you’re missing until it’s gone, so I got to see that, which wasn’t great, but I’m definitely working a lot harder and I know what I want,” Gonzalez said. “I still feel like I’m on an upward slope for my running. I feel like I have a lot of improvement to still make.”

Despite a conservative approach to her 2016 outdoor season debut at the Tulsa Duels in Tulsa, Okla., on March 19, Gonzalez placed first in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:01.61.

“That was the first day in the past few months I hadn’t had any pain at all, and ever since then it’s just been getting a lot better,” Gonzalez said.

Now it’s all about running as fast as she can. She still has her sights set on not only qualifying for nationals this season but also finishing inside the top eight and earning All-America honors before attempting to qualify for the Olympic trials.

“I’m just trying to run as fast as I can,” Gonzalez said. “We have back-to-back meets, which we don’t usually do, so I think that’s a good opportunity for at least myself and some of my other teammates to run on tired legs and kind of get used to what that feels like.”

The Cyclones are in need of veteran leadership from Gonzalez as five of the 16 athletes they entered for the San Francisco State Distance Carnival and Stanford Invitational on Friday and Saturday are true freshmen.

The distance group is especially young, with six true freshmen runners listed on the roster.

“We have some kids kind of developing nicely, which is good,” said ISU assistant track coach Andrea Grove-McDonough. “We have a really young group.”

The team has been competing without some of its best distance runners this year, including Crystal Nelson, Bethanie Brown and Becky Straw.

“We’re a little lean in terms of depth, so we’re kind of having to hope for some good things for some young gals this year and just see what we can do,” Grove-McDonough said.