Supporting a teammate during a track race is a common practice. Supporting an opponent during a race is unheard of. 

Yet during the women’s 10,000-meter race at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship, the only way to tell Iowa State’s redshirt senior Katy Moen and Texas’ Megan Siebert competed for different teams was by the color of their jerseys. 

Moen entered the race as the defending Big 12 champion in the event and the No. 1 seed among a field of 16 distance runners. 

Moen said with two miles to go in the race, she and the runner from Texas decided they were going to have to race for second after Katie Gillespie of West Virginia created too much separation in first. 

“From there, you just focus on racing for second,” Moen said. “I know the Texas girl was hoping for a school record, so she was kind of trying to keep up the pace a little bit and we were a little worried about the group behind us, but we were kind of talking through it and working together.”

Moen’s coach, Andrea Grove-McDonough, was unaware of the communication between Moen and Siebert during the race, but viewed it positively. 

“I actually didn’t know that,” Grove-McDonough said. “I think at that point they knew the two of them weren’t going to catch Gillespie and neither one of them wanted to get caught by the chase pack, so I think they ended up working together a little bit at the end. It’s smart on both their parts, to be honest.”

Moen was able to pull ahead of Siebert in the last lap and finished second in the event with a time of 34:23.20.

“It seemed like from my coaches and from even [Siebert’s] coach that her coach was a little concerned and my coaches were just like, ‘relax and wait until the last lap or so,’ and so I was fairly confident [I would finish second].”

Moen scored eight points for the Cyclones in the event and represented one of four athletes who scored for Iowa State at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship.

It has yet to be decided if Moen will race again this weekend. She is scheduled to compete in the 5,000-meter run on Sunday.

Competing with Moen in the 10,000, redshirt freshman Erin Hooker added a point for the Cyclones, finishing eighth in the event. 

The hammer throwing duo of redshirt seniors Anna Holtermann and Kayla Sanborn finished fourth and seventh in their premiere event, respectively, earning a combined seven points for Iowa State. 

The Cyclones will enter day two of the three-day event in sixth place with 16 points. Senior Christina Hillman will lead off in the shot put for Iowa State at 12 p.m. Saturday.