NAMPA, Idaho – Iowa State women’s track team, riding the splendid running of six-time All-American Betsy Saina, equaled its all-time NCAA indoor team finish, placing 10th Saturday at the NCAA Track and Field Championships on the Jacksons Indoor Track. The Cyclones were also 10th indoors in 2010. Oregon won the team title with 49 points. Iowa State finished with 21 points.
After winning the NCAA indoor 5000-meter title on Friday, Saina recorded a third-place finish in Saturday’s 3000-meter final. Saina recorded a time of 9:16.16 behind Georgetown’s Emily Infeld (9:15.44) and California’s Deborah Maier (9:15.74).
Saina entered the bell lap near the back of the lead pack, but used her final kick to beat out Oregon’s Jordan Hasay in the final 10 meters, recording six team points. The race’s original start was recalled after Saina was tripped up only seconds into the race. She seemed no worse for wear.
“It can be tough coming back from a spill on a start,” Iowa State head coach Corey Ihmels said. “Betsy did a great job coming back after the 5,000 victory Friday. We finished seventh nationally in cross country and just six points out of third indoors. We feel great about where things are headed.”
The top 10 teams nationally were Oregon, Kansas (30), LSU (27), Texas (25), Arkansas, Texas A&M and Clemson (24), UCF (23), Florida (22) and Iowa State.
