Injuries, a hangover from one of the most successful cross-country seasons in school history and a team that couldn’t fully hit its stride highlighted the ISU women’s track and field season.

All it took was a span of two days for the team to flip that script.

It wasn’t Iowa State’s seventh place finish in the Big 12 standings, it was the team’s ability to grind out races and refusal to settle for any thing less than what it was capable of.

“We want fans, parents and other coaches to say the women of Iowa State are tough,” said ISU coach Andrea Grove-McDonough. “They’re just so tough, tough to beat down the stretch and I think they showed that. That’s going to do a lot of good things for them and for us.”

The team’s gritty character opened the door to 11 personal records and numerous Big 12 scoring performances, influenced heavily by the 5,000-meter run and 3,000-meter run.

Every story has its beginning and this one began with the mile run during day one of the Big 12 Indoor Championship.

On paper, Iowa State wasn’t expected to qualify any of its runners to the finals of the mile event. But after saving her best performance for her last meet of the indoor season, sophomore Heidi Engelhardt ran a personal best time of 4:49.39, earning a spot in the final heat.

“Unless you’re going to nationals, this is definitely the meet to show up,” Engelhardt said. “This is where the girls are making their best marks. Everyone’s rested and they’re going to give their best performances this weekend, and so you want to be a part of that and make the final, do well in the final and place in the final.”

Engelhardt went on to finish sixth in the finals, earning three points for the Cyclones.

The 60-meter hurdles, 600-yard run and 1,000-meter run each featured ISU personal records from junior Kaci Storm, junior Alyssa Gonzalez and freshman Evelyne Guay, respectively. Gonzalez and Guay both earned qualifying times for the finals.

The 5,000-meter run was the highlight of day one, as ISU runners clocked four of the top five times in the event. Graduate student Margaret Connelly finished second, followed by redshirt senior Katy Moen, redshirt freshman Erin Hooker and junior Crystal Nelson.

The event marked Nelson’s first race since the NCAA Cross Country Championship, and her coach summed up the effort as heroic.

“[Nelson’s] only been running three days a week, hasn’t had any workouts since November of any kind [and] probably had about five weeks off total,” Grove-McDonough said. “[She’s] not fit at all by her standards and then came out and gave us what she could in that 5,000.”

The ability to gain ground late in races was no more evident for the Cyclones than during the 5,000-meter, as Hooker made her way from eighth place at the start of the final lap to fourth at the finish line.

Day two featured two top-10 performances in the high jump for Iowa State, including a fourth place finish by sophomore Marine Vallet and a ninth place finish by redshirt freshman Katie Reeves. Freshman Jhoanmy Luque added a third-place performance in the triple jump.

Once again, a distance event stole the show on day two. The 3,000-meter run ended with five ISU runners cracking the top 10. Moen finished second, followed by Connelly in third, Hooker in sixth, freshman Abby Caldwell in seventh and freshman Olivia Robertson in eighth.

“Big 12s is all about team and scoring a lot of points,” Connelly said. “The better I can place, the more points we score and the better our team ultimately does.”

Iowa State witnessed a complete team effort at the Big 12 Indoor Championship and now waits to see if any of the times hold up for the NCAA Indoor Championship.