It has been over a year since Lisa Koll and Grace Kemmey have run in a cross country meet for the Cyclones, but the two seniors will be making their return this Saturday at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis.

Their last race was at 2008 ISU Open (now known as the Iowa Intercollegiate), where they both ran unattached. Koll won the race, while Kemmey finished second.

“[Koll and Kemmey] are bouncing off the walls, ready to go,” said head coach Corey Ihmels in Monday’s press conference. “They’re excited. Both of them made huge sacrifices to redshirt last year and come back this year, and they’re just excited to get going again.”

This will be Koll and Kemmey’s first official cross country race since the 2007 NCAA Championships, where they finished 18th and 22nd, respectively, earning both of them All-American honors. Earlier that year, Koll and Kemmey finished second and third, respectively, at the Roy Griak Invitational.

“When I came here as a freshman we were 11th in the conference, so the progress we’ve made since then is huge,” Koll said. “And I feel very special to be a part of that.”

Last year, in Koll and Kemmey’s absence, senior Paige Ties led the Cyclone women to a tenth-place finish by finishing 45th overall. Sophomores Meaghan Nelson and Dani Stack finished 46th and 67th, respectively, in the 222-runner field.

On the men’s side, junior Hillary Bor led the Cyclones by finishing eighth overall, followed by graduated senior Kiel Uhl who finished 10th. Guor Marial, who earned All-American honors last year as a junior, finished the 8,000-meter race 12th overall, improving on his time every year since he began running in cardinal and gold.

The men finished second overall in the meet with 89 points, beating out BYU by only two points. The Cyclone men were successful in doing so by placing their top five runners in the top twenty percent of the 229-runner field.

This year, both the men and women are ranked in the top 30 heading into this weekend’s Roy Griak Invitational.

The men are ranked 25th while the women are ranked 28th, according to the recent rankings released by the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association. Ihmels believes that this only makes things more interesting as the Cyclones progress through the season.

“It’s been interesting with both groups being nationally ranked, and at such a high level, they kind of feed off each other a little bit and I think that’s exciting as we move forward,” Ihmels said.

The cross country team faces its first big test with the Roy Griak Invitational this Saturday, and will look to gain momentum heading into the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill., on Oct. 16