The Iowa State women placed ninth and the men 29th at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational held Friday in Madison, Wis.

The women scored 362 points and were defeated for the first time this season.

Junior Meaghan Nelson led the way for the women and finished the 6,000-meter race in ninth in a time of 20:16. Senior Dani Stack and junior Betsy Saina placed close behind in 11th and 18th, respectively.

“With the top three we have, it’s deadly at the national level,” said assistant coach Travis Hartke. “Most teams don’t have it, and really we just need a fourth or a fifth.”

The fourth and fifth Cyclone women were sophomores Morgan Casey and India Lee who placed 147th and 177th, respectively.

“They just went out in a bad position, went out too slow and were unable to move up,” Hartke said.

This was the largest race the Cyclones had competed in so far with 44 teams in the women’s race and 39 teams competing in the men’s race.

With 18 nationally ranked women’s teams and 20 men’s teams, Hartke said it was as competitive as the national championship race should be. 

“We probably didn’t finish as well as we wanted to, but that’s also kind of a good thing,” Nelson said.

Nelson said not doing their best and still getting ninth means they could place even higher at nationals when they are at their peak.

The young men’s team showed their inexperience by placing in the bottom half, racking up 638 points.

Sophomore Martin Coolidge outshined the rest of his team placing 28th in the 8,000-meter course with a time of 24:17.

The next fasted Cyclone was 107th place finisher senior Rico Loy who ran a 24:52.

“I felt really good but we still haven’t put it together as a team yet,” Coolidge said. “We just need to all put it together on the same day, and I think we could be a lot better.”

Loy was said to have been having an “off” day and senior Charlie Paul was dealing with an injury.

Both teams are preparing for the Big 12 Championships in College Station, Texas, to be held on Oct. 29.