After coming off a pre-meet invitational at the Drake Fall Classic in Des Moines last Friday, the ISU men’s and women’s cross country teams gear up for another warm-up meet at their only home invitational of the season Saturday.

“Last weekend [at Drake] I think everything went true to form as we expected,” said Corey Ihmels, head coach of both ISU teams. “Everyone competed well and had the chance to get real race experience. It was nothing spectacular, nothing terrible, just kind of steady, really.”

Just like last weekend, this meet will allow several new runners and a few returning runners to get out and race for the first time this season.

“We’re going to run a few more people this weekend than we did last weekend,” Ihmels said. “It will give those men and women a chance to get their feet wet.”

Lisa Koll, 2006 All-American who will not be racing in this weekend’s home meet, agrees with Ihmels about the importance of getting more runners out this weekend.

“A lot of people running this weekend that didn’t run last weekend will really benefit and see where they are at,” Koll said. “A lot of girls have come in this year in better shape than they were last year and are just itching to get out there and compete and see the fruits of their labor.”

Despite the Drake meet being a warm-up for runners, the only ISU home meet will again be taken relatively lightly as everyone continues to look forward to the future meets.

“It’s more of a pre-meet gauge and a low-key meet,” Koll said. “What’s happening this weekend and what’s happening at the Roy Griak Invitational [in Minneapolis] in two weeks are completely different things, but it’s a good step to figure out what we have to do.”

Although the runners want to put on a show for the fans, junior Kiel Uhl said the Cyclones don’t put a large emphasis on the meet because, even though it is a home meet, relatively few fans will turn out for the race.

“The reason it is such a low-key meet [is] because, to be honest, we have a small fan base here [at Iowa State] anyway,” Uhl said. “Having a meet at home makes us run with more intensity because the fans are out there watching us. We want to show them what we can do.”

Although attendance of the meet may not draw the same as the football crowd, home meets are still of large importance for the team.

“Obviously you always wish there were more meets at home,” Koll said. “Next year, the Big 12 will be here at Iowa State, which will be interesting to have a bigger and a more competitive meet than this one.

“This one, being a smaller meet, makes it not a huge advantage to have it here at home, but it is nice to have it here and to have friends and familiar people to just show up and check it out.”

What: ISU men and women’s cross country meet

Where: ISU Cross Country Course

When: Saturday

First race begins at 10 a.m.

Second race begins at 10:30 a.m.