The Jim Duncan Invitational provided little in terms of importance for the ISU women’s track and field coaches.

And while 75 percent of the team that competed focused on gaining experience, the invitational served a much greater purpose for one ISU athlete.

Junior Alyssa Gonzalez has spent her first outdoor track season as a Cyclone specializing in the 400-meter hurdles, and spent the past week of practice improving the final 200 meters of her race.

“My first 200 meters of my race is really smooth [but] the last 200 meters is really rough,” Gonzalez said. “I start getting sloppy over the hurdles, so it takes up a lot of my time. This meet, I really focused a lot on being prepared.”

The work she put in during practice was evident in her performance. Gonzalez finished first in the race with a time 1:00.24, breaking her previous personal record by .69.

“I’m really happy about how the race went,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t really care so much about the place. I’m happy that I won but I’m more happy with the time and how the actual execution of the race was.”

Gonzalez said she felt more comfortable competing close to home after traveling to Arizona and Alabama for the previous two meets.

“I feel more in my element, even though we’re not at Iowa State,” Gonzalez said. “I feel it’s less of a burden being away from home. I just feel more comfortable running here.”

Gonzalez wasn’t the only athlete on the women’s team to have success at Drake.

Redshirt freshman Katie Reeves began the day for the Cyclones with a second place finish in the high jump.

“We’ve been working on a lot of technique stuff that hasn’t been going the greatest the last few meets and it finally came together this meet,” Reeves said. “It was probably the best I’ve felt all year.”

ISU associate head coach Fletcher Brooks said he was pleased with the fact that Reeves was able to implement some of the pieces of her technique they had been working on less than 24 hours before she competed.

Reeves said the ultimate goal is to score at Big 12s and believes she can get there if she continues to improve.

Redshirt seniors Anna Holtermann and Kayla Sanborn rounded out competition for the Cyclones at the invitational, finishing third and fifth, respectively, in the hammer throw.

“I thought [Holtermann and Sanborn] were solid,” Brooks said. “They were both pretty beat up and sore from training. I think it was a solid performance considering what we’ve been doing as far as the workload.”

The Cyclones have three meets on the schedule for this week, including the Mt. SAC Relays, the Kansas Relays and the LSU Alumni Gold. The team will return to Drake for the Drake Relays on April 22.

“Getting this race in before the Drake Relays was really nice to be able to feel the track, know what to expect and no where the hurdles are and everything,” Gonzalez said. “It’s just another step in preparing myself for my future races.”