Youth benefited the team Friday at the Wyoming Invitational, as four of the Cyclones’ top five finishes came from newcomers to the team.

Overall, the men’s cross country team placed third behind Colorado State and Air Force.

Freshman Kiel Uhl was the top performer for Iowa State, placing fourth out of 66 runners with a time of 22:18.83.

Freshmen Jory Zunich (23:05.16) and John Ricardi (23:15.91) finished 16th and 22nd, respectively.

Rounding out the top five for the Cyclones were sophomore Ricky Reusser (23:32.87) and freshman Richard Newton (23:43.84).

Coach Corey Ihmels said he was pleased, but not surprised with the performances of the newcomers.

“Those freshmen will continue to get better,” Ihmels said. “I expected three or four of our freshmen to be in our top seven. For us to be good, they have to be in our top five.

“And that’s the reason some of them came here — to come in right away and perform.

“I think we really walked away with some positive things.”

Junior David Rotich, who started off well, did not finish the race because of a bad cold.

“David was running really well for three miles and then his body shut down on him,” Ihmels said. “He’ll bounce back — he was already feeling better on the way home.”

Ihmels said he has decided to redshirt sophomore Leif Lomeland, and will have a better idea of who else to sit after Friday’s ISU Open.

“We’ve got a month before we are at our highest level,” he said.

Uhl said the team was pleased despite not having too many expectations for the first meet of the season.

“I think our team is really good,” he said. “It’s a good indication. It’s not that often that you get a group of guys that runs that well.”

A run in the mountains Saturday with the Wyoming team offered the men a drastic change in scenery from the flatlands of Ames.

“[The run] was really nice,” Uhl said. “It would have been a mistake to run in Wyoming without running there.

“The big thing about this meet is that the team came together and bonded.”

Reusser said he agreed.

“With half of the team being freshmen, [the 10-hour drive] was a good chance to get to know them better,” he said.

Reusser said running is a mental game and the altitude that affected the team shouldn’t be used as a scapegoat.

“It’s easy to say this or that would be different,” he said. “With the altitude, it feels like you’re going faster than you really are. Part of it is in your head.

“You get to compete just like you would anywhere else.”

What about the 10-hour drive?

“We broke it up over a couple of days,” Reusser said. “We left Wednesday, the meet was Friday.

“I don’t think the drive out there hurt anyone too much.”

Overall, Reusser looked at the first meet as a stepping stone for the season.

“We just got out there and competed and that’s what we wanted to do,” he said. “As a whole, we’re not disappointed.”