Iowa State, Iowa, Northern Iowa and Drake — the Big 4 Iowa schools — competed under one roof at Lied Recreational Center in Ames on Jan. 24.

Redshirt senior Henry Kelley got in the circle and zoned in for the weight throw. After a giant burst of power, Kelley recorded a distance of 18.86 meters, which shot him up to sixth in the ISU track and field history books. Kelley finished first in the weight throw.

“The biggest takeaway for me is that I broke the 60-foot barrier,” Kelley said. “I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I got here and I did it, and I don’t want to look back.”

Another first place performance came from junior Jan Jeuschede. He threw for a distance of 18.12 meters in the shot put. Even with a first place finish, Jeuschede wasn’t entirely satisfied.

“Obviously, I’m under my [personal record] today so I’m not quite too happy with that,” Jeuschede said. “Training has been going so well, so it’s kind of disappointing a little bit. There are just a few technical things I need to think about more in competition. I need to be a little more patient in the front, not try to do everything with upper body and wait a little bit more.”

While the field events carried the Cyclones on Jan. 24, the distance runners had a little something to say about it as well. The mile run compiled another first place and second place finish for Iowa State. Senior Brian Biekert finished with a time of 4:06.23, while redshirt sophomore Brian Llamas finished right behind Biekert with a time of 4:07.25.

Iowa State also finished one-two in the 800-meter run. Senior Edward Kemboi finished first with a time of 1:46.94 and senior Patrick Peterson finished second with a time of 1:49.30.

“For a lot of people, [Jan. 24] was the opener,” Jeuschede said. “We had some pretty good performances today with PR’s. Our 800 ran pretty good. Our field crew had a couple [personal records] — a good start to the season, so I think we should be pretty good to go in the meets to come and eventually Big 12s.”

However, the first place finishes weren’t enough in the end for the Cyclones. The final dual scores in quadrangular format didn’t turn out in Iowa State’s favor on the men’s side. Northern Iowa outscored Iowa State 81.00 to 65.00, Iowa outscored Iowa State 87.00 to 55.00 and Drake outscored Iowa State 75.00 to 68.00.

Just because it didn’t pan out for Iowa State on the scoreboard, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a “fun” atmosphere for the competitors, as well as the fans.

“Coming to this meet is pretty fun because it’s all the in-state rivals, some of the people I know from high school,” Kelley said. “It has a smaller feel and you normally don’t get that at the collegiate D1 level. It’s kind of nice to see every now and again.”

The Cyclones will be back in action Jan. 30, when they travel to Fayetteville, Ark. for the Razorback Team Invitational.