The newly ranked No. 21 ISU men’s cross country team will send five runners to compete in the South Dakota State Classic this Saturday in Brookings, S.D. This will be the last official meet for the team before it competes in the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind. on Oct. 14.

Some teams expected to run are host South Dakota State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, North Dakota State and a handful of smaller schools.

Coach Corey Ihmels will send seniors Kyle Rasmussen and Jon Reis and sophomores Brandon Rooney, John Ricardi and Kevin Born to the race.

“It’s just an opportunity for them to get out and compete,” Ihmels said about the group.

Ricardi said the meet will prepare him and others well for the season’s remainder.

“It’s a little bit more of a low-key meet,” Ricardi said. “It’s going to be good for us to get more experience and gain some confidence as we look at the rest of the season.”

Ricardi added that being ranked should be a motivating factor in workouts and upcoming races.

“Everybody’s always been very motivated and now that we are ranked, I’d say we’re even more motivated because when you put on that uniform, people recognize it,” he said. “We’re not satisfied [with No. 21] and we want to continue to get better.”

Coach Ihmels said he isn’t sending a lot of guys because he wants the team to recover from the Roy Griak Invitational meet last weekend and stay healthy in order to perform well down the road.

The runners who are not attending the meet will begin training and preparing for the Pre-Nationals meet in three weeks.

“The Griak race was a tough course and kind of tore us up a little bit,” Ihmels said. “We’ve just got to keep focused, take care of the little things and make sure we stay healthy.”