Despite breaking numerous records at the Big 12 Championships two weeks ago, the ISU cross country team felt it didn’t do as well as expected. Senior Guor Marial expressed his dissatisfaction with his performance at the meet.

“I felt like I could have done better than I did,” Marial said. “That’s the way of cross country. You just go in confident that you want to do what you want to do, but sometimes it just turns out the way you don’t want it to, and that’s how things go. It was OK, but it didn’t help the team enough.”

Two weeks have passed, and the Cyclones are gearing up for the first of their final two meets — the NCAA Regional Meet in Springfield, Mo.

Last year, the men finished fourth overall at the NCAA Regional meet in Stillwater, Okla. Marial led the men, finishing the 10,000-meter race eighth overall, with a time of 31:21. Graduate Kiel Uhl followed Marial by finishing 12th overall, just nine seconds off Marial’s pace. Junior Hillary Bor shadowed Uhl by finishing 13th, just two seconds off Uhl’s pace.

On the women’s side, the Cyclones finished ninth overall. Senior Paige Ties led the depleted Cyclone women, finishing 32nd overall with a time of 21:53. Sophomore Meaghan Nelson followed Ties by finishing the 6,000-meter race 35th overall, just eight seconds off Ties’ pace.

After failing to live up to their expectations at the Big 12 championships, the Cyclones look to rebound this weekend with a strong performance at Regionals.

“We went in with high expectations and we were a little disappointed on both sides,” coach Corey Ihmels said. “I think we were capable of more, and we’ve got to improve on those things and get ready to go [for Regionals].”

This meet will feature a head-to-head bout with in-state rival Iowa. In the first meeting between the two schools this year, the Hawkeye men scored an almost-perfect score of 17 points as they went on to win the 2009 Iowa Intercollegiate meet in Ames.

The Cyclone men will start at noon, followed by the women at 1:15 p.m.