Iowa State hosted the 2010 Iowa Intercollegiate meet Saturday at the ISU Cross-Country Course. Competing with 13 schools from the area, Iowa State won both the men’s and women’s races.

The women’s team had a successful meet, having seven of the top 10 finishers running for the Cyclones.

Morgan Casey, a freshman from Gooselake, had a stellar debut performance.

She fell just short of the win to Morningside’s Kara Nelson by just more than a second.

“On the women’s side, Morgan Casey almost had the chance to win there at the end,” said coach Corey Ihmels.

“She started really slow and really patient. As a freshman, it’s a great way to start your career.”

Also finishing at the front was junior Kellien Oettle, who took third. Oettle ran neck-and-neck with Casey for the duration of the race and had no issue watching her young teammate push for first place.

“I’m really excited about our team,” Oettle said.

“You better look out, there’s some good girls [running for the Cyclones].”

On the men’s side, senior Daniel Murray had an equally impressive race.

Finishing second behind Isaiah Samoei of Iowa Western, Murray lead the pack of Cyclones finishing in the top bracket.

“[Murray] is a senior, he’s trained really hard and he was second today against a really good runner,” Ihmels said. “You’ll be hearing from those guys later in the year.”

Being the first and only home meet for Iowa State, Saturday was a chance for younger members of the team to get experience and show their talent.

“We [got to] run a lot of young kids that haven’t got a lot of opportunity in the past,” Ihmels said.

Amongst that young group was Alex Dillenbeck, who is a freshman from Aurora, Colo. Dillenbeck finished fourth in the men’s race.

“It’s really impressive when we have a freshman running well,” said freshman Tyler Rich.

Rich ran well also, finishing third with a time of 26:09.24.

“We were all together through [the first] 5k, and we all felt pretty good,” Rich said. “Then we all kind of did our own thing.”

The ISU men had seven runners amongst in the top 10, showing the depth of the team.

“All in all, I think the groups did a really good job,” Ihmels said. “For the most part, I can’t think of anyone … who didn’t give a good effort. That’s what we were looking for.”

The University of Minnesota hosts the next meet for the Cyclones. Saturday the Gophers will host the 25th annual Roy Griak Invitational.

Iowa State’s top 12 male runners and top 8 female runners will make the trip up north.

“Everybody’s training hard,” Oettle said. “And knock on wood, everyone’s going to be healthy [for next weekend].”