Iowa State played host to the Iowa Intercollegiate on Saturday at the ISU Cross Country Course in Ames. The Iowa Intercollegiate, formerly known as the ISU Open, underwent a change from last year, permitting only Iowa schools to compete in the race. As a result, the turnout for this year’s event nearly doubled the number of schools and runners who participated on both the men’s and women’s sides.

“It was very nice to have as many athletes on the starting line in both races,” head coach Corey Ihmels said. “I think it was well received from the other teams and coaches. Hopefully this can become an annual event, and hopefully a year from now we can have twice as many teams and kind of continue on from there.”

Iowa State’s Marley Crusch finished the women’s 5,000-meter race fourth overall, with a time of 18:47. Crusch, a true freshman from Manhattan, Kan., ran the race unattached.

“For the team, it was a really good race,” Crusch said. “It’s a good starting point for us.”

Fellow freshman Taylor Peterson finished right behind Crusch, fifth overall, with a time of 18:58. Peterson, who also ran unattached, admitted to having pre-meet jitters.

“I think it was a good confidence builder for me because I’m just coming in as a freshman and I didn’t know if I could run with the college girls,” Peterson said. “I didn’t know how the race was going to go [since] it’s my first college race. I was a little nervous beforehand, but then, once I got running, it was fun and exciting.”

The women won the meet with 51 points, beating out the University of Northern Iowa by nearly 20 points.

“[Crusch and Peterson] did a tremendous job,” Ihmels said. “They were not scared or apprehensive. They got in there and competed really hard and both did a great job. So now I’ve got to go back and figure out whether or not we’re going to redshirt them.”

On the men’s side, junior Daniel Murray led the Cyclones, finishing eighth overall with a time of 26:22. Redshirt freshman Charlie Paul finished 10th overall with a time of 26:30, and junior Alex Whitesell finished 12th overall, just nine seconds off Paul’s pace.

The men placed second overall in the meet with 62 points, trailing the University of Iowa’s first-place finish. Iowa, placing seven of its nine runners in the top 10, finished with 17 points.

“All-in-all, I was pretty excited about the effort,” Ihmels said. “Obviously it’s never fun to get beat up on by Iowa on the men’s side, but we’ve got bigger fish to fry later in the year, and we’ll have a chance to run against them down the road.”

Since its conception in 1995, the ISU Cross Country Course has played host to many big events, including the NCAA Championships in 2000 and the Big 12 Championships in 2008.

The ISU Cross Country Course was the first course in the nation to be designed and used exclusively for cross country racing.

“We’ve got this beautiful course, and it’s probably one of the best courses in the country,” Ihmels said. “It’s exciting for our athletes to get on their home course, and we had a lot of new kids that [for them] this was their first taste of collegiate cross country. So all-in-all, I think it served its purpose.”