After Friday’s ISU Open, both the Cyclone men’s and women’s cross country teams will have a better assessment of what their teams will look like.

The ISU women are competing in their first race of the season.

For many runners, it will also be their first race at the collegiate level.

Freshman Dawn Caffrey, a transfer from Des Moines Area Community College, hasn’t raced since her senior year at Ankeny High School three years ago.

“I’m just ready to race,” Caffrey said. “I’m pumped.”

Freshman Lisa Koll said she’s a little nervous. Koll competed on the ISU cross country course while in high school, running for Fort Dodge.

“It’s my first collegiate meet, so I don’t know what to expect,” Koll said. “I know the course, but it’s just a whole different atmosphere.”

As veterans on the team, juniors Krysta Metz and Meredith McKean said they know what to expect, and can benefit from that experience.

“It’s my last chance, my last season,” Metz said. “This year, I have to have the mentality that when I’m going out, I’m going to be happy with what I’ve accomplished.”

McKean said she isn’t nervous and is ready to run.

“I’m ready to see how our team will stack up against the competition,” she said.

The Cyclones may be without sophomore Mackenzie Madison early on.

Madison found out Sept. 1 that she is battling anemia, the same condition that hindered McKean for most of the 2004 season.

“It’s the sophomore plague,” Metz joked.

Madison said she sleeps a lot, takes iron and has to watch what she eats.

Women’s coach Dick Lee hadn’t made a decision on whether to race Madison as of Thursday morning.

“We may just have her run a portion of the race,” Lee said. “We don’t want to wear her down. At this time of the year, we take the conservative side instead of taking a chance.”

At the ISU Open, the women will face Northern Iowa, Drake, North Dakota State, William Penn and South Dakota.

“We’re just looking at a good, solid race at this point of the year,” Lee said. “I doubt any of our times will be that fast with the heat moving in.”

Last week at the Wyoming Invitational, the ISU men took third place behind Colorado State and Air Force.

Four of the top five finishes for Iowa State were from freshmen, and men’s coach Corey Ihmels said he expects to see similar results in Friday’s race.

“This is a meet that we can run our unattached runners, such as Dan Taylor and Guor Majak [Marial],” Ihmels said. “I expect the young guys to compete for the top spots again.”

The men face the same teams as the women, with the addition of Truman State.

Despite not keeping score for this meet, Ihmels said he will have a better idea of who will be in his top seven to nine runners and who will take a redshirt.