Health problems will curtail the women’s cross country team Friday when the Cyclones host the ISU 4K and 6K meet.

Women’s head coach Dick Lee said some of his runners have been sitting out lately because of bad head colds and other illnesses.

In a sport where runners can’t substitute in for each other, keeping everyone healthy can be a challenge, Lee said.

“It’s kind of like having your starters in basketball play the whole game,” Lee said. “You have to be healthy to run. [Being] at 75 percent is a huge detriment.”

Lee said he has seen a few of his runners show quite a bit of improvement.

“A couple, because of illness, have taken a downward slide on a roller coaster ride,” Lee said. “Better now than in mid-October when we don’t have time to train for the conference meet.”

Lee said sophomore Krysta Metz had been running well prior to getting a respiratory illness. He said with runners, you keep track of the days to see improvement.

With Metz’s illness, Lee said they are on day nine.

At this stage of the season, Lee said one of his pleasant surprises has been senior Lindsey Nye. He said her training and racing have gone really well so far this season.

“She was unable to finish at Minnesota [last weekend due to illness],” Lee said. “We hope to get her on the right road again.”

Lee said this “really low key” meet will feature 4K runners from Minnesota and Morningside.

For the men, head coach Corey Ihmels said his runners are in a good place coming off its win at the Midwest Collegiate Open in Kenosha, Wisc.

On Friday, the 6K competitors will arrive from Illinois State, Morningside and a partial team from Drake.

“It’s not a huge meet, but it’s a good meet in a sense that it gives us a chance to get in a race situation, which is something you can’t create in practice,” Ihmels said.

He said the team’s sole focus is the conference meet and that the runners just need to get after it.

“As a whole, we’ve done a great job,” Ihmels said. “All 18 guys have been training hard and we’ve had a healthy team.

Ihmels said redshirt sophomore Jon Reis has stepped up and been on of the top runners.

“He’s been our biggest surprise,” Ihmels said.

The men’s 6K race will follow the women’s 4K, which is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the ISU Cross Country Course.