The ISU Men’s cross country team made a clean sweep of the ISU Open on Saturday, as the first seven finishers were Cyclone runners.

Sophomore Kiel Uhl, runner-up of the meet last year, won the 8K race with a time of 24 minutes, 58.8 seconds. Uhl’s time was 45 seconds faster than his time last year in the ISU Open, proving that all the work he put in during the offseason has paid off.

Uhl identified the consistency of training as the key to his racing better in the early part of this season.

“I think it’s been consistent training and putting in a lot more miles this summer,” Uhl said.

Uhl said he and his main training partner, redshirt freshman Guor Marial, have been preparing by putting in hundred-mile weeks.

“We’re not doing more intense workouts than last year, but we’re doing them under control and not doing too much too soon,” Uhl said. “I think we’re just turning the corner.”

Uhl said the meet was more a chance to run as an individual than last weekend’s Drake Classic, and it showed.

“This weekend was more running your own race and giving a good individual effort,” Uhl said. “We went out pretty easy and then picked up in the last two miles or so just to simulate a race at the end.”

Uhl was followed through the finish line by six Cyclone runners. Fourteen seconds behind Uhl was Marial, placing second with a time of 25:13.2.

Senior David Rotich placed third (25:25.7), sophomore

Kevin Born fourth (25:27.0), freshman Daniel Fadgen fifth (25:30.8), sophomore Jory Zunich sixth (25:38.0) and senior Dan Taylor seventh (25:42.1).

Coach Corey Ihmels said he’s excited about the finish and looks forward to getting to the bigger meets because this is one of his strongest teams he has had during his five-year tenure at Iowa State.

“We’ve got the most depth we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Ihmels said.

“I thought today they all stepped up to the plate and ran together as a group,” Ihmels said. “That’s what we’re going to have to do at the Big 12 Championships and the regional meet.”

Third-place finisher Rotich said he feels the team is ahead of where it was at this same time last season.

“The way I ran [at the ISU Open], I just felt a lot better than I did last year,” Rotich said.

Rotich identifies the way the team has been running in practice as a key to the positive results they are getting in these early meets.

“The pace [of practice] is a lot better than last year so I guess that’s where the difference comes from,” he said. “I think every meet, we will do better than last year – just from the way things are looking.”