Injuries and a mid-race fall kept three of Iowa State’s top distance runners from finishing their races in the final day of competition in the ISU Classic. Senior Kiel Uhl (foot) and sophomore Yonas Mebrahtu (achilles) sat out the men’s 5,000-meter race as they rested up for the Big 12 Indoor Championships which are only two weeks away.

“Both injuries are just due to the bad weather we’ve had, we just didn’t want to jeopardize two weeks from today,” said ISU coach Corey Ihmels. “I think those guys are coming around and I think they’ll be alright in a couple weeks.”

The injuries to Uhl and Mebrahtu meant that senior Guor Marial and freshman Joel Limo would be the lone ISU competitors in the first heat of the 5,000-meter run. Marial raced out to an early lead before being caught by Kansas City Smoke’s Paul Heffron. Marial finished in second place with a time of 14:20.58, even without running alongside his teammates Uhl and Mebrahtu.

“It was kind of lonely out there for the first part of the race,” Marial said. “It’s a good thing now that they didn’t race today to take care of themselves it’s a good sign and was a smart choice for them,”

The top seed coming into the men’s seeded mile, ISU junior Hillary Bor, fell at the 800 meter mark while he was attempting to make an outside move to the front of the pack. Bor, who was running in the first heat of the event, chose to not finish the race, but made his way to the starting line once again for the second heat. Bor ran the second heat of the mile as the rabbit, the runner who sets the pace at the front of the race, before bowing out of the race.

“I just had to get some work done with all that we have ahead of us,” Bor said.

With Bor’s mishap in the mile, ISU senior Brandon Rooney was able to move into second place and finish there behind Minnesota’s Andy Richardson in a time of 4:05:69. Rooney, the winner of the mile three weeks ago at the Bill Bergan Invitational, was hoping to provisionally qualify for the NCAA meet but did not meet the provisional qualifying time of 4:03.50. Rooney will change his focus over the next two weeks as he will focus more on what he can do to help the team earn points at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in two weeks.

“[Provisionally qualifying] was kind of the goal today, but I’m pretty confident in my ability to make finals [at the Big 12 Indoor Championships] so as far as time goes it doesn’t really matter; it’s more about competing,” Rooney said.

The team’s third second-place finish in a distance race came from senior Jory Zunich who ran a personal record 8:15.35 in the men’s seeded 3,000-meter run.

Sophomore sprinter Ian Warner continues to hover around the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 6.71 seconds in the 60 meter dash. Warner ran a 6.74 in the finals of the 60 meters on Saturday, giving him a second-place finish for the second time this season. Warner and assistant coach Nate Wiens continue to work on consistency with Warner’s start which is where the speedy sophomore hopes to shave off a few hundredths of a second.

“Although I didn’t do it right in the final, I did it right in the heat so I know I can do it now,” Warner said. “Now I have to go back to the drawing board again and keep working on it so I can get it more and more consistently in practice.”

Warner currently holds the fifth-fastest time, 6.72 seconds, amongst Big 12 runners in the 60-meter dash, putting him in position to score some points in two weeks.

“Ian’s your pro athlete in a sophomore body,” Wiens said. “He understands himself and he understands the task ahead of him.”

A group that has shown improvement in only their first season as Cyclones is the freshmen trio of Brian Sandvig, Casey Negrete and Greg Kufahl. All three have had top five finishes in the 600-yard run this season, led by Sandvig’s third place finish this weekend.

“Finishing third is a big confidence booster, the first two times I ran it I was just kind of timid and just didn’t run a good 600 race,” Sandvig said. “I’m kind of getting the hang of it and I’m excited to go into Big 12’s now.”

For the men’s throwers, junior Josh Koglin continued to lead the Cyclone men in the weight throw with a 12th-place finish. Assistant coach Grant Wall expected his throwers to be a bit down this week as they just began a three week training cycle that puts them in a position to peak at the Big 12 Indoor Championships.

“They just keep improving. They have a lot more to go and they keep getting more and more confidence,” Wall said.

Ihmels hoped at the beginning of the week that a few members of the men’s team could hit NCAA provisional qualifying marks this weekend, but unfortunately none did. Although much of the indoor season has been focused on individual performance, Ihmels and his team will turn their focus to their most important team meet of the indoor season when they host the Big 12 Indoor Championships on February 26 and 27 at the Lied Recreation Athletic Center.

“We weren’t really on top of things [this weekend] as maybe we have been in the past couple meets but I’m not concerned. I think we’re in a good spot and I just think we have to get ready to do what we can in conference,” Ihmels said.

“I feel a lot better about where we’re at, having not really hit on all cylinders today because if you hit on all cylinders today then it makes you a little bit nervous going into two weeks from now.”