ISU cross country hosts meet
September 8, 2006
The ISU men’s cross country team will run its last tune-up race of the season when it hosts the ISU Open at 10 a.m. Friday at the ISU Cross Country Track.
The 8K race will include runners from Drake, South Dakota, North Dakota State, Morningside College and North Iowa Area Community College.
Coach Corey Ihmels said the meet will be “very low key,” similar to last Friday’s Drake Fall Classic, where he said the team stayed healthy, executed its plan well and ran with good intensity.
“I thought everybody ran well last week. I made everybody run together for the first loop last week. I thought they followed instructions well,” Ihmels said. “Knock on wood – we’ve been doing really good with [staying healthy] so far this year.”
FASTTRAK
Men’s Schedule:
>>Drake Fall Classic
Sept. 01 – at Des Moines
>>ISU Open
10 a.m. Sept. 09 – at Ames
>>Roy Griak Invitational
11:20 a.m. Sept. 23 – at Minneapolis
>>SDSU Classic
TBA Sept. 30 – at Brookings, S.D.
>>Pre Nationals
11 a.m. Oct. 14 – at Terre Haute, Ind.
>>Big 12 Championships
11 a.m. Oct. 27 – at Lawrence, Kan.
>>NCAA Regional
11 a.m. Nov. 11 – at Minneapolis
>>NCAA Championships
11 a.m. Nov. 20 – at Terre Haute, Ind.
>>USA XC Championships
TBA Feb. 10 – at Boulder, Colo.
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At the ISU Open last year, the Cyclones took four of the top six spots, with sophomore Kiel Uhl leading the team in second place with a time of 25 minutes, 44.12 seconds. Not far behind were seniors David Rotich in third and Dan Taylor in fourth, and sophomore Guor Marial in sixth. South Dakota runner Tony Turgeon, a senior last season, won the meet in 25:42.64.
Coach Ihmels said Uhl has worked hard this year and is a step ahead of where he was last year when he raced in the ISU Open.
“I think Kiel’s one of the best runners in the Big 12,” Ihmels said. “Any time he tows the line, he has a chance to win. I think he’s matured both physically and mentally, and he’s definitely a few steps ahead of where he was.”
Uhl agreed, saying he also feels like he has improved since last year in both practice and races.
“I feel like I’ve been more consistent and experienced than last year,” he said. “This summer I put in a lot of work.”
Jayden Russ, a transfer student from Brisbane, Australia, placed fifth in his first college meet at the Drake Fall Classic on Sept. 1. Russ has impressed Ihmels thus far, and Ihmels said he believes Russ will continue to improve.
“[Russ] kind of got his feet wet last meet. He’s going to continually get better every week,” Ihmels said.
The ISU Open will be another way for the team to get a meet in before officially scored meets begin. The first scoring meet for the Cyclones will be Sept. 23, when they travel to the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis.
Uhl said these unofficial meets are a good way to get experience before running in the regional and conference meets at the end of the season.
“It’s good to get these little meets in to get experience for the bigger meets,” Uhl said.
Along with Rotich, Russ, Taylor and Marial, the Cyclones will send seniors Kyle Rasmussen, Ricky Reusser and Jon Reis, junior Kevin Born and sophomore Brandon Rooney to the starting line to represent Iowa State. The rest of the runners, including Uhl, will run as “unattached” to protect their red-shirt privileges.
The meet will begin at 10 a.m. at the cross country course, located at the corner of Hayward Avenue and Mortensen Road. The ISU Fun Run, an event open to the public and organized by the ISU athletic department, will precede the ISU Open at 9:30 a.m.
Other cross country resources from ISD:
Cyclone men stretch their legs at Drake race (09/01)
(W) Drake Fall Classic gives team chance to tune up (09/01)
